Ml,'!!! 


li,.}s 


ill 


!i  In; 


THE  GLORIES 

OF 

IRELAND 


EDITED  BY 

JOSEPH  DUNN,  Ph.D., 

AND 

P.  J.  LENNOX.  Liti.D.. 

PBOFESSOBS  AT  THE  CATHOLIC  UNIVERSITY  OF  AMERICA 


-BOSTON'  Clrp,-, 


PHOENIX.  UMITED 
WASHINGTON.  D.  C. 

1914 


CoPYBiGHT,   I914,  BY  PhOENIX,  LiMITED 

All  Rights  Reserved 


TO 

THE  IRISH  RACE 

IN 

EVERY  LAND 


Ireland: 

"All  thy  life  has  been  a  symbol ;  we  can  only  read  a  part : 
God  will  flood  thee  yet  with  sunshine  for  the  woes  that 
drench  thy  heart." 

John  Boyle  O^Reilly. 


PREFACE 


We  had  at  first  intended  that  this  should  be  a  book  without 
a  preface,  and  indeed  it  needs  none,  for  it  speaks  in  no  uncer- 
tain tones  for  itself;  but  on  reconsideration  we  decided  that 
it  would  be  more  seemly  to  give  a  short  explanation  of  our 
aim,  our  motives,  and  our  methods. 

As  a  result  of  innumerable  inquiries  which  have  come  to  us 
during  our  experience  as  educators,  we  have  been  forced  to 
the  conclusion  that  the  performances  of  the  Irish  race  in  many 
fields  of  endeavor  are  entirely  unknown  to  most  people,  and 
that  even  to  the  elect  they  are  not  nearly  so  well  known  as  they 
deserve  to  be.  Hence  there  came  to  us  the  thought  of  placing 
on  record,  in  an  accessible,  comprehensive,  and  permanent 
form,  an  outline  of  the  whole  range  of  Irish  achievement  dur- 
ing the  last  two  thousand  years. 

In  undertaking  this  task  we  had  a  twofold  motive.  In  the 
first  place,  we  wished  to  give  to  people  of  Irish  birth  or 
descent  substantial  reason  for  that  pride  of  race  which  we 
know  is  in  them,  by  placing  in  their  hands  an  authoritative 
and  unassailable  array  of  facts  as  telling  as  any  nation  in  the 
world  can  show.  Our  second  motive  was  that  henceforward 
he  who  seeks  to  ignore  or  belittle  the  part  taken  by  men  and 
women  of  Irish  birth  on  blood  in  promoting  the  spread  of  re- 
ligion, civilization,  education,  culture,  and  freedom  should 
sin,  not  in  ignorance,  but  against  the  light,  and  that  from  a 
thousand  quarters  at  once  champions  armed  with  the  panoply 
of  knowledge  should  be  able  to  spring  to  his  confutation. 

To  carry  out  in  a  satisfactory  manner  over  a  field  so  im- 
mense our  lawfully  ambitious  aim  was,  as  we  realized  at  the 
outset,  not  possible  to  any  two  men  who  are  primarily  engaged, 
as  we  are,  in  other  work  of  an  exacting  nature.  Therefore, 
to  render  feasible  the  execution  of  our  undertaking,  we  de- 
cided to  invite  the  collaboration  of  many  scholars  and  spe- 
cialists, each  of  whom  could,  out  of  the  fullness  of  informa- 
tion, speak  with  authority  on  some  particular  phase  of  the 
general  subject.   We  are  glad  to  say  that  the  eminent  writers 


vi 


PREFACE 


to  whom  we  addressed  ourselves  answered  with  promptitude 
and  alacrity  to  our  call,  and  have  supplied  us  with  such  a  body 
of  material  as  to  enable  us  to  bring  out  a  book  that  is  abso- 
lutely unique. 

From  each  contributor  we  asked  nothing  but  a  plain  verifia- 
ble statement  of  facts,  and  that,  we  think,  is  exactly  what  they 
have  given  us,  for,  while  we  do  not  make  ourselves  personally 
responsible  for  everything  set  down  in  the  following  pages, 
we  believe  that  what  stands  written  therein  bears  every  mark 
of  careful  research  and  of  absolute  reliability. 

Although  on  many  of  our  subjects  little  more  remains  to  be 
said  than  what  appears  in  the  text,  yet  the  treatment  on  the 
whole  does  not  claim  to  be  exhaustive,  and  therefore  each 
writer  has,  at  our  request,  appended  to  his  contribution  a  short 
and  carefully  selected  bibliography,  so  that  those  who  are  in- 
terested may  have  a  guide  for  further  reading.  For  our  part, 
W'C  consider  these  lists  of  works  of  reference  to  be  a  highly 
useful  feature. 

It  is  a  glorious  thing  for  us,  who  are  proud,  one  of  us  of  his 
Irish  descent  and  the  other  of  his  Irish  birth,  to  think  that  the 
sons  and  daughters  of  mother  Erin  have  so  conspicuously  dis- 
tinguished themselves  in  such  varied  spheres  of  activity  in 
every  age  and  in  so  many  lands,  and  that  we  were  privileged 
to  make  public  the  record  of  their  achievements  in  a  form 
never  before  attempted. 

We  have  other  works  in  contemplation,  and  some  actually 
in  preparation,  which  will  go  far  to  strengthen  the  claims  put 
forward  in  this  book.  In  the  meantime,  we  trust  that  the 
reception  accorded  to  it  will  be  such  as  to  encourage  us  to 
persevere  in  making  still  better  known  the  Glories  of  Ireland. 

Joseph  Dunn 
P.  J.  Lennox 

Catholic  University  of  America, 
Washington,  D.  C. 

November,  1914 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

The:  Romance  oi^  Irish  History   1 

Sir  Roger  Casement,  C.M.G. 

The  Island  oi^  Saints  and  Scholars   9 

Very  Rev.  Canon  D'Alton,  M.R.I.A.,  LL.D. 

Irish  Monks  in  Europe   20 

Rev.  Columba  Edmonds,  O.S.B. 

The  Irish  and  the  Sfa   33 

William  H.  Babcock,  LL.B. 

Irish  Love  oi^  Learning   38 

Rev.  P.  S.  Dinneen,  M.A.,  R.U.I. 

Irish  Men      Science   44 

Sir  Bertram  C.  A.  Windle,  Sc.D.,  M.D. 

Law  in  Ireland   56 

Laurence  Ginnell,  B.L.,M.P. 

Irish  Music   71 

W.  H.  Grattan  Flood,  Mus.D. 

Irish  Metal  Work   78 

Diarmid  Coffey 

Irish  Manuscripts.,    84 

Louis  Ely  O'Carroll,  B.A.,  B.L.  ^' 

The  Ruins  oE  Ireland   89 

Francis  J.  Bigger,  M.R.I.A. 

Modern  Irish  Art   95 

D.  J.  O'Donoghue 


viii 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Ireland  at  Play   102 

Thomas  E.  Healy 

oThe  Fighting  Race   110 

Joseph  1.  C.  Clarke 

The  Sorrows  of  Ireland   145 

John  Jerome  Rooney,  A.M.,  LL.D. 

Irish  Leaders   153 

Shane  Leslie 

Irish  Heroines   162 

Alice  Milligan 

Irish  Nationality   170 

Lord  Ashbourne 

Famous  Irish  Societies   176 

John  O'Dea 

The  Irish  in  the  United  States   184 

Michael  J.  O'Brien 

The  Irish  in  Canada   221 

James  J.  Walsh,  M.D. 

The  Irish  in  South  America   228 

Marion  Mulhall 

The  Irish  in  Australasia   245 

Brother  Leo,  F.S.C.,  M.A. 

The  Irish  in  South  Africa   253 

A.  Hilliard  Atteridge 

The  Irish  Language  and  Letters   258 

Douglas  Hyde,  LL.D. 


CONTENTS  ix 

PAGE 

NATivie  Irish  Poetry   265 

Georges  Dottin 

Irish  Heroic  Sagas   270 

Eleanor  Hull 

Irish  Precursors  oi^  Dante   277 

Sidney  Gunn,  M.A. 

Irish  Influence  on  English  Literature   283 

Edmund  C.  Quiggin,  M.A. 

Irish  Folk  Lore   290 

Alfred  Perceval  Graves 

Irish  Wit  and  Humor   298 

Charles  L.  Graves 

The  Irish  Theatre   304 

Joseph  Holloway 

Irish  Journalists   310 

Michael  MacDonagh 

The  Irish  Literary  Revival   317 

Horatio  S.  Krans,  Ph.D. 

Irish  Writers  oe  English   326 


P.  J.  Lennox,  B.A.,  Litt.  D. 


V 


\ 


THE  ROMANCE  OF  IRISH  HISTORY 


By  Sir  Roger  Casement,  C.  M.  G. 

THE  history  of  Ireland  remains  to  be  written,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  Irishmen  remains  yet  to  be  achieved. 
The  struggle  for  national  realization,  begun  so  many  cen- 
turies ago,  is  not  ended;  and  if  the  long  story  offers  a  so  fre- 
quent record  of  failure,  it  offers  a  continuous  appeal  to  the 
highest  motives  and  a  constant  exhibition  of  a  most  pathetic 
patriotism  linked  with  the  sternest  courage. 

Irish  wars,  throughout  all  time,  have  been  only  against  one 
enemy,  the  invader,  and,  ending  so  often  in  material  disaster, 
they  have  conferred  always  a  moral  gain.  Their  memory  up- 
lifts the  Irish  heart;  for  no  nation,  no  people,  can  reproach 
Ireland  with  having  wronged  them. 

When,  at  the  dawn  of  the  Christian  era,  we  first  hear  of 
Ireland  from  external  sources,  we  learn  of  it  as  an  island  har- 
boring free  men,  whose  indomitable  love  of  freedom  was  hate- 
ful to  the  spirit  of  imperial  exploitation. 

Agricola's  advice  to  the  empire-builders  of  his  day  was  that 
Rome  should  "war  down  and  take  possession  of  Ireland,  so 
that  freedom  might  be  put  out  of  sight.'* 

It  was  to  meet  this  challenge  of  despotism  that  the  Scotic 
clans  of  Alba  turned  to  their  motherland  for  help,  and  the 
sea  was  "white  with  the  hurrying  oars"  of  the  men  of  Erin 
speeding  to  the  call  of  their  Highland  kinsmen,  threatened 
with  imperial  servitude. 

The  first  external  record  we  possess  thus  makes  it  clear  that 
when  the  early  Irish  w^ent  forth  to  carry  war  abroad,  it  was 
not  to  impose  their  yoke  on  other  peoples,  or  to  found  an 
empire,  but  to  battle  against  the  Empire  of  the  World  in  the 
threatened  cause  they  held  so  dear  at  home. 

In  this  early  Roman  reference  to  Ireland  we  get  the  key- 
note to  all  later  Irish  history — a  warring  down  on  the  one 
hand,  so  that  freedom  might  be  put  out  of  sight;  an  eternal 
resistance,  on  the  other,  so  that  it  might  be  upheld. 

It  was  this  struggle  that  Ireland  sought  to  maintain  against 
every  form  of  attack,  down  through  Danish,  Norman,  Tudor, 


THE  GW)RIES  OF  IRELAND 


Stuart,  and  Cromwellian  assault,  to  the  larger  imperialism  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  when,  as  Thierry,  the  historian  of  the 
Norman  Conquest,  tells  us,  it  still  remained  the  one  "lost 
cause"  of  history  that  refused  to  admit  defeat.  "This  indom- 
itable persistency,  this  faculty  of  preserving  through  centuries 
of  misery  the  remembrance  of  lost  liberty  and  of  never  despair- 
ing of  a  cause  always  defeated,  always  fatal  to  those  who 
dared  to  defend  it,  is  perhaps  the  strangest  and  noblest  ex- 
ample ever  given  by  any  nation." 

The  resources  Ireland  opposed  to  her  invaders  have  been 
unequal  to  the  founding  of  a  great  state,  but  have  preserved 
a  great  tradition.  The  weakness  of  Ireland  lay  in  the  absence 
of  a  central  organization,  a  state  machine  that  could  mobilize 
the  national  resources  to  defend  the  national  life.  That  life 
had  to  depend  for  its  existence,  under  the  stress  of  prolonged 
invasion,  on  the  spontaneous  patriotism  and  courage  of  indi- 
viduals. At  times  one  clan  alone,  or  two  clans,  maintained  the 
struggle.  Arrayed  against  them  were  all  the  resources  of  a 
mighty  realm — shipping,  arms,  munitions  of  war,  gold,  state- 
craft, a  widespread  and  calculating  diplomacy,  the  prestige  of  a 
great  Sovereign  and  a  famous  Court — and  the  Irish  clan  and 
its  chieftain,  by  the  sheer  courage  of  its  members,  by  their 
bodily  strength  and  hardihood  and  feats  of  daring,  for  years 
kept  the  issue  in  doubt. 

When  Hugh  O'Neill,  leagued  with  Red  Hugh  O'Donnell, 
challenged  the  might  of  Elizabeth,  he  had  nothing  to  rely  upon 
but  the  stout  hearts  and  arms  of  the  men  of  Tir-owen  and 
Tir-Conail.  Arms  and  armaments  were  far  from  Ulster.  They 
could  be  procured  only  in  Spain  or  elsewhere  on  the  conti- 
nent. English  shipping  held  the  sea;  the  English  mint  the 
coinage.  The  purse  of  England,  compared  to  that  of  the 
Ulster  princes,  was  inexhaustible.  Yet  for  nine  years  the 
courage,  the  chivalry,  the  daring  and  skill  of  these  northern 
clansmen,  perhaps  20,000  men  in  all,  held  all  the  might  of 
England  at  bay.  Had  the  Spanish  king  at  any  time  during 
the  contest  made  good  his  promise  to  lend  effective  aid  to  the 
Irish  princes,  O'Neill  would  have  driven  Elizabeth  from  Ire- 
land, and  a  sovereign  State  would  today  be  the  guardian  of  the 
freedom  of  the  western  seas  for  Europe  and  the  world.  It 


THS  romance:  0^  IRISH  HISTORY 


3 


took  "the  best  army  in  Europe"  and  a  vast  treasure,  as  Sir 
John  Davies  asserted,  to  conquer  two  Ulster  clans  three  hun- 
dred years  ago.  The  naked  valor  of  the  Irishman  excelled  the 
armed  might  of  Tudor  England;  and  the  struggle  that  gave 
the  empire  of  the  seas  to  Britain  was  won  not  in  the  essay  of 
battle,  but  in  the  assay  of  the  mint. 

It  is  this  aspect  of  the  Irish  fight  for  freedom  that  dignifies 
an  otherwise  lost  cause.  -Ever  defeated,  yet  undefeated,  a 
long-remembering  race  believes  that  these  native  qualities  must 
in  the  end  prevail.  The  battle  has  been  from  the  first  one  of 
manhood  against  might.  The  State  Papers,  the  official  record 
of  English  rule  in  Ireland,  leave  us  rarely  in  doubt.  We  read 
in  that  record  that,  where  the  appeal  was  to  the  strength  or 
courage  of  the  opposing  men,  the  Irish  had  nothing  to  fear 
from  English  arms. 

Thus  the  Earl  of  Essex,  in  a  despatch  to  Elizabeth,  ex- 
plained the  failure  of  his  great  expedition  in  1599  against 
O'Neill  and  O'Donnell.  "These  rebels  .  .  .  have 
(though  I  do  unwillingly  confess  it)  better  bodies  and  per- 
fecter  use  of  their  arms  than  those  men  whom  your  Majesty 
sends  over."  The  flight  of  the  Earls  in  1607  left  Ireland 
leaderless,  with  nothing  but  the  bodies  and  hearts  of  the  people 
to  depend  on.  In  1613  we  read,  in  the  same  records,  a  candid 
admission  that,  although  the  clan  system  had  been  destroyed 
and  the  great  chiefs  expropriated,  converted,  or  driven  to 
flight,  the  people  still  trusted  to  their  own  stout  arms  and 
fearless  hearts: 

"The  next  rebellion,  whenever  it  shall  happen,  doth  threaten 
more  danger  to  the  State  than  any  heretofore,  when  the  cities 
and  walled  towns  were  always  faithful;  (1)  because  they  have 
the  same  bodies  they  ever  had  and  therein  they  had  and  have 
advantage  of  us;  (2)  from  infancy  they  have  been  and  are 
exercised  in  the  use  of  arms;  (3)  the  realm  by  reason  of  the 
long  peace  was  never  so  full  of  youths;  (4)  that  they  are 
better  soldiers  than  heretofore  their  continental  employment 
in  wars  abroad  assures  us,  and  they  do  conceive  that  their  men 
are  better  than  ours." 

And  when  that  "next  rebellion"  came,  the  great  uprising  of 
the  outraged  race  in  1641,  what  do  we  find?    Back  from 


4 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


the  continent  sails  the  nephew  of  the  great  O'Neill,  who  had 
ieft  Ireland  a  little  boy  in  the  flight  of  the  Earls,  and  the  dis- 
possessed clansmen,  robbed  of  all  but  their  strength  of  body 
and  heart,  gathered  to  the  summons  of  Owen  Roe. 

*Again  it  was  the  same  issue:  the  courage  and  hardihood 
of  the  Irishman  to  set  against  the  superior  arms,  equipment, 
and  wealth  of  a  united  Britain.  Irish  valor  won  the  battle; 
a  great  state  organization  won  the  campaign.  England  and 
Scotland  combined  to  lay  low  a  resurgent  Ireland;  and  again 
the  victory  was  not  to  the  brave  and  skilled,  but  to  the  longer 
purse  and  the  implacable  mind.  -  Perhaps  the  most  vivid  testi- 
mony to  these  innate  qualities  of  the  Irishman  is  to  be  found 
in  a  typically  Irish  challenge  issued  in  the  course  of  this  ten 
years'  war  from  1641  to  1651.  The  document  has  a  lasting 
interest,  for  it  displays  not  only  the  "better  body"  of  the  Irish- 
man, but  something  of  his  better  heart  and  chivalry  of  soul. 

One  Parsons,  an  English  settler  in  Ireland,  had  written  to  a 
friend  to  say,  among  other  things,  that  the  head  of  a  colonel 
of  an  Irish  regiment  then  in  the  field  against  the  English  would 
not  be  allowed  to  stick  long  on  its  shoulders.  The  letter  was 
intercepted  by  the  very  regiment  itself,  and  a  captain  in  it, 
Felim  O'Molloy,  wrote  back  to  Parsons : 

"I  will  doe  this,  if  you  please.  I  will  pick  out  60  men  and 
fight  against  100  of  your  choise  men,  if  you  do  but  pitch  your 
campe  one  mile  out  of  your  towne,  and  then,  if  you  have  the 
victory,  you  may  threaten  my  colonel ;  otherwise  do  not  reckon 
your  chickens  before  they  be  hatched." 

It  was  this  same  spirit  of  daring,  this  innate  belief  in  his 
own  manhood,  that  for  three  hundred  years  made  every  Irish- 
man the  custodian  of  his  country's  honor. 

An  Irish  state  had  not  been  born ;  that  battle  had  still  to  be 
fought;  but  the  romantic  effort  to  achieve  it  reveals  ever  an 
unstained  record  of  personal  courage.  Freedom  has  not  come 
to  Ireland ;  it  has  been  "warred  down  and  kept  out  of  sight" ; 
but  it  has  been  kept  in  the  Irish  heart,  from  Brian  Boru  to 
Robert  Emmet,  by  a  long  tale  of  blood  shed  always  in  the 
same  cause.  Freedom  is  kept  alive  in  man's  blood  only  by  the 
shedding  of  that  blood.  It  was  this  they  were  seeking,  those 
splendid  "scorners  of  death",  the  lads  and  young  men  of 


THE  ROMANCE         IRIS^H  HISTORY 


5 


Mayo,  who  awaited  with  a  fearless  joy  the  advance  of  the 
English  army  fresh  from  the  defeat  of  Humbert  in  1798. 
Then,  if  ever,  Irishmen  might  have  run  from  a  victorious  and 
pitiless  enemy,  who  having  captured  the  French  general  and 
murdered,  in  cold  blood,  the  hundreds  of  Killala  peasants  who 
were  with  his  colors,  were  now  come  to  Killala  itself  to  wreak 
vengeance  on  the  last  stronghold  of  Irish  rebellion. 

The  ill-led  and  half-armed  peasants,  the  last  Irishmen  in 
Ireland  to  stand  in  open,  pitched  fight  for  their  country's  free- 
dom, went  to  meet  the  army  of  General  Lake,  as  the  Protestant 
bishop  who  saw  them  says,  "running  upon  death  with  as  little 
appearance  of  reflection  or  concern  as  if  they  were  hastening 
to  a  show." 

The  influences  that  begot  this  reverence  for  freedom  lie  in 
the  island  itself  no  less  than  in  the  remote  ancestry  of  the 
people.  Whoever  looks  upon  Ireland  cannot  conceive  it  as  the 
parent  of  any  but  freemen.  Climate  and  soil  here  unite  to 
tell  man  that  brotherhood,  and  not  domination,  constitutes  the 
only  nobility  for  those  who  call  this  fair  shore  their  mother- 
land. The  Irish  struggle  for  liberty  owes  as  much,  perhaps, 
to  the  continuing  influence  of  the  same  lakes  and  rivers  and 
the  same  mountains  as  to  the  survival  of  any  political  frag- 
ments of  the  past.  Irish  history  is  inseparably  the  history  of 
the  land,  rather  than  of  a  race;  and  in  this  it  oflfers  us  a 
spectacle  of  a  continuing  national  unity  that  long-continuing 
disaster  has  not  been  able  wholly  to  efface  or  wholly  to  disrupt. 

To  discover  the  Europe  that  existed  before  Rome  we  must 
turn  to  the  East,  Greece,  and  to  the  West,  Ireland. 

Ireland  alone  among  western  lands  preserves  the  recorded 
tradition,  the  native  history,  the  continuity  of  mind,  and,  until 
yesterday,  of  speech  and  song,  that  connect  the  half  of  Europe 
with  its  ancestral  past.  For  early  Europe  was  very  largely 
Celtic  Europe,  and  nowhere  can  we  trace  the  continuous  influ- 
ence of  Celtic  culture  and  idealism,  coming  down  to  us  from  a 
remote  past,  save  in  Ireland  only. 

To  understand  the  intellect  of  pre-Roman  Gaul,  of  Spain, 
of  Portugal,  and  largely  of  Germany,  and  even  of  Italy,  we 
must  go  to  Ireland.  Whoever  visits  Spain  or  Portugal,  to 
investigate  the  past  of  those  countries,  will  find  that  the  record 


6 


THI$  GU)RIES  OF  IRJei^AND 


Stops  where  Rome  began.  Take  England  in  further  illustra- 
tion. The  first  record  the  inhabitants  of  England  have  of  the 
past  of  their  island  comes  from  Roman  invasion.  They  know 
of  Boadicea,  of  Cassivelaunus,  the  earliest  figures  in  their  his- 
tory, from  what  a  foreign  destroyer  tells  them  in  an  alien 
tongue. 

All  the  early  life  of  Celtiberians  and  Lusitanians  has  passed 
away  from  the  record  of  human  endeavor,  save  only  where 
we  find  it  recorded  by  the  Italian  invaders  in  their  own  speech, 
and  in  such  terms  as  imperial  exploitation  ever  prescribes  for 
its  own  advancement  and  the  belittlement  of  those  it  assails. 
Ireland  alone  among  all  western  nations  knows  her  own 
past,  from  the  very  dawn  of  history  and  before  the  romance 
of  Romulus  began,  down  to  the  present  day,  in  the  tongue  of 
her  own  island  people  and  in  the  light  of  her  own  native 
mind.  Early  Irish  history  is  not  the  record  of  the  clan- 
strivings  of  a  petty  and  remote  population,  far  from  the 
centre  of  civilization.  It  is  the  authentic  story  of  all  western 
civilization  before  the  warm  solvent  of  Mediterranean  blood 
and  iron  melted  and  moulded  it  into  another  and  rigid  shape. 

The  Irishman  called  O'Neill,  O'Brien,  O'Donnell,  steps  out 
of  a  past  well-nigh  co-eval  with  the  heroisms  and  tragedies 
that  uplifted  Greece  and  laid  Troy  in  ashes,  and  swept  the 
Mediterranean  with  an  Odyssey  of  romance  that  still  gives  its 
name  to  each  chief  island,  cape,  and  promontory  of  the  mother 
sea  of  Europe.  Ireland,  too,  steps  out  of  a  story  just  as  old. 
W ell  nigh  every  hill  or  mountain,  every  lake  or  river,  bears  the 
name  today  it  bore  a  thousand,  two  thousand,  years  ago,  and 
one  recording  some  dramatic  human  or  semi-divine  event. 

The  songs  of  the  Munster  and  Connacht  poets  of  the 
eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries  gave  to  every  cottage  in 
the  land  the  ownership  as  well  as  the  tale  of  an  heroic  ances- 
try. They  linked  the  Ireland  of  yesterday  with  the  Ireland  of 
Finn  and  Oscar,  of  Diarmid  and  Grainne,  of  Deirdre  and  the 
Sons  of  Usnech,  of  Cuchulainn  the  Hound  of  Ulster.  A  people 
bred  on  such  soul-stirring  tales  as  these,  linked  by  a  language 
"the  most  expressive  of  any  spoken  on  earth"  in  thought  and 
verse  and  song  with  the  very  dawn  of  their  history,  wherein 
there  moved,  as  familiar  figures,  men  with  the  attributes  of 
gods — great  in  battle,  grand  in  danger,  strong  in  loving,  vehe- 


the;  romance:  of  IRISH  HISTORY  7 

ment  in  death — such  a  people  could  never  be  vulgar,  could 
never  be  mean,  but  must  repeat,  in  their  own  time  and  in  their 
own  manhood,  actions  and  efforts  thus  ascribed  as  a  vital  part 
of  their  very  origin.  Hence  the  inspiration  that  gave  the 
name  of  Fenian,  in  the  late  nineteenth  century,  to  a  band  of 
men  who  sought  to  achieve  by  arms  the  freedom  of  Ireland. 
The  law  of  the  Fenian  of  the  days  of  Marcus  Aurelius  was 
the  law  of  the  Fenian  in  the  reign  of  Victoria — to  give  all 
— mind,  body,  and  strength  of  purpose — to  the  defense  of  his 
country,  "to  speak  truth  and  harbor  no  greed  in  his  heart." 

Some  there  are  who  may  deny  to  Finn  and  his  Fenians  of 
the  second  and  third  centuries  corporeal  existence;  yet  noth- 
ing is  surer  than  that  Ireland  claims  these  ancestral  embodi- 
ments of  an  heroic  tradition  by  a  far  surer  title  of  native 
record  than  gives  to  the  Germans  Arminius,  to  the  Gauls, 
Ariovistus,  to  the  British,  Caractacus.  This  conception  of  a 
national  life,  one  with  the  land  itself,  was  very  clear  to  the 
ancient  Irish,  just  as  it  has  been  and  is  the  foundation  of  all 
later  national  effort. 

"If  ever  the  idea  of  nationality  becomes  the  subject  of  a 
thorough  and  honest  study,  it  will  be  seen  that  among  all  the 
peoples  of  antiquity,  not  excluding  the  Hellenes  and  the  He- 
brews, the  Irish  held  the  clearest  and  most  conscious  and  con- 
stant grasp  of  that  idea;  and  that  their  political  divisions, 
instead  of  disproving  the  existence  of  the  idea,  in  their  case 
intensely  strengthen  the  proof  of  its  existence  and  emphasize 
its  power. 

In  the  same  way  the  remarkable  absence  of  insular  exclu- 
siveness,  notwithstanding  their  geographical  position,  servts  to 
bring  their  sense  of  nationality  into  higher  relief. 

Though  pride  of  race  is  evident  in  the  dominant  Gaelic  stock, 
their  national  sentiment  centres  not  in  the  race,  but  altogether 
in  the  country,  which  is  constantly  personified  and  made  the 
object  of  a  sort  of  cult. 

It  is  worth  noting  that  just  as  the  Brehon  Laws  are  the 
laws  of  Ireland  without  distinction  of  province  or  district; 
as  the  language  of  Irish  literature  is  the  language  of  Ireland 
without  distinction  of  dialects;  as  the  Dindshenchus  contains 
the  topographical  legends  of  all  parts  of  Ireland,  and  the 
Festilogies  commemorate  the  saints  of  all  Ireland;  so  the 


8 


the;  glories  of  Ireland 


Irish  chronicles  from  first  to  last  are  histories  of  the  Irish 
nation.  The  true  view  of  the  Book  of  Invasions  is  that  it  is 
the  epic  of  Irish  Nationality."  (Professor  Eoin  MacNeill,  in 
a  letter  to  Mrs.  A.  S.  Green,  January,  1914.) 

The  "Book  of  Invasions",  which  Professor  MacNeill  here 
speaks  of,  was  compiled  a  thousand  years  ago.  To  write  the 
history  of  later  Ireland  is  merely  to  prolong  the  "Book  of  In- 
vasions", and  thus  bring  the  epic  of  Irish  resistance  down  to 
our  own  day.  All  Irish  valor  and  chivalry,  whether  of  soul 
or  of  body,  have  been  directed  for  a  thousand  years  to  this 
same  end.  It  was  for  this  that  Sarsfield  died  at  Landen  no  less 
than  Brian  at  Clontarf.  The  monarch  of  Ireland  at  the  head  of 
a  great  Irish  army  driving  back  the  leagued  invaders  from  the 
shores  of  Dublin  Bay  in  1014,  and  the  exiled  leader  in  1693, 
heading  the  charge  that  routed  King  William^s  cause  in  the 
Netherlands,  fell  on  one  and  the  same  battlefield.  They  fought 
against  the  invader  of  Ireland. 

We  are  proudly  told  that  the  sun  never  sets  on  the  British 
Empire.  Wherever  an  Irishman  has  fought  in  the  name  of 
Ireland  it  has  not  been  to  acquire  fortune,  land,  or  fame,  but 
to  give  all,  even  life  itself,  not  to  found  an  empire,  but  to 
strike  a  blow  for  an  ancient  land  and  assert  the  cause  of  a 
swordless  people.  Wherever  Irishmen  have  gone,  in  exile  or 
in  fight,  they  have  carried  this  image  of  Ireland  with  them. 
The  cause  of  Ireland  has  found  a  hundred  fields  of  foreign 
fame,  where  the  dying  Irishman  might  murmur  with  Sarsfield, 
"Would  that  this  blood  were  shed  for  Ireland",  and  history 
records  the  sacrifice  as  made  in  no  other  cause. 

Ireland,  too,  owns  an  empire  on  which  the  sun  never  sets. 

Refebences  : 

Sigerson :  Bards  of  the  Gael  and  Gall ;  O'Callaghan :  History  of 
the  Irish  Brigades;  Mitchel:  Life  of  Hugh  O'Neill;  Green:  The 
Making  of  Ireland  and  its  Undoing,  Irish  Nationality,  The  Old  Irish 
World ;  Taylor :  Life  of  Owen  Roe  O'Neill ;  Todhunter :  Life  of  Pat- 
rick Sarsfield ;  Hyde :  Love  Songs  of  Connacht,  Religious  Songs  of 
Connacht;  O'Grady:  Bog  of  Stars,  Flight  of  the  Eagle;  Ferguson: 
Hibernian  Nights'  Entertainment;  Mitchel:  History  of  IreKnd,  in 
continuation  of  MacGeoghegan's  History. 


THE  ISLAND  OF  SAINTS  AND 
SCHOLARS 

By  Canon  D'Alton,  M.  R.  L  A.,  LL.D. 

UNLIKE  the  natives  of  Britain  and  Scotland,  the  Irish  in 
pre-Christian  times  were  not  brought  into  contact  with 
Roman  institutions  or  Roman  culture.  In  consequence  they 
created  and  developed  a  civilization  of  their  own  that  was  in 
some  respects  without  equal.  They  were  far  advanced  in  the 
knowledge  of  metal-work  and  shipbuilding;  they  engaged  in 
commerce;  they  loved  music  and  had  an  acquaintance  with 
letters ;  and  when  disputes  arose  among  them,  these  were  settled 
in  duly  constituted  courts  of  justice,  presided  over  by  a  trained 
lawyer,  called  a  brehon,  instead  of  being  settled  by  the  stern 
arbitrament  of  force.  Druidism  was  their  pagan  creed.  They 
believed  in  the  immortality  and  in  the  transmigration  of  souls ; 
they  worshipped  the  sun  and  moon,  and  they  venerated  mount- 
ains, rivers,  and  wells;  and  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  any 
ministers  of  religion  who  were  held  in  greater  awe  than  the 
Druids. 

Commerce  and  war  brought  the  Irish  into  contact  with 
Britain  and  the  continent,  and  thus  was  Christianity  gradually 
introduced  into  the  island.  Though  its  progress  at  first  was 
not  rapid,  there  were,  by  431,  several  Christian  churches  in 
existence,  and  in  that  year  Palladius,  a  Briton  and  a  bishop, 
was  sent  by  Pope  Celestine  to  the  Irish  who  already  believed 
in  Christ.  Discouraged  and  a  failure,  Palladius  returned  to 
Britain  after  a  brief  stay  on  his  mission,  and  then,  in  432,  the 
same  Pope  sent  St.  Patrick,  who  became  the  Apostle  of  Ire- 
land. 

Because  of  the  great  work  he  did,  St.  Patrick  is  one  of  the 
prominent  figures  of  history;  and  yet,  to  such  an  extent  has 
the  dust  of  time  settled  down  on  his  life  and  acts  that  the 
place  and  year  of  his  birth,  the  schools  in  which  he  was  edu- 
cated, and  the  year  of  his  death,  are  all  matters  of  dispute. 
There  is,  however,  no  good  reason  to  depart  from  the  tradi- 
tional account,  which  is,  that  the  Apostle  was  born  at  Dum- 
barton in  Scotland,  in  the  year  372;  that  in  388  he  was  cap- 


10 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


tured  by  the  Irish  king  Niall,  who  had  gone  on  a  plundering 
raid  into  Scotland ;  that  he  was  brought  to  Ireland  and  sold  as  a 
slave,  and  that  as  such  he  served  a  pagan  chief  named  Milcho 
who  lived  in  what  is  now  the  county  of  Antrim;  that  from 
Antrim  he  escaped  and  went  back  to  his  own  country ;  that  he 
had  many  visions  urging  him  to  return  to  Ireland  and  preach 
the  Gospel  there ;  that,  believing  these  were  from  God,  he  went 
to  France,  and  there  was  educated  and  ordained  priest,  and 
later  consecrated  bishop;  and  then,  accompanied  by  several 
ecclesiastics,  he  was  sent  to  Ireland. 

From  Wicklow,  where  he  landed,  he  proceeded  north  and 
endeavored,  but  in  vain,  to  convert  his  old  pagan  master 
Milcho ;  thence  he  proceeded  south  by  Downpatrick  and  Dun- 
dalk  to  Slane  in  Meath,  where,  in  sight  of  Tara,  the  high- 
king's  seat,  he  lighted  the  paschal  fire.  At  Tara  he  confounded 
the  Druids  in  argument,  baptized  the  high-king  and  the  chief 
poet ;  and  then,  turning  north  and  west,  he  crossed  the  Shan- 
non into  Connacht,  where  he  spent  seven  years.  From  Con- 
nacht  he  passed  into  Donegal,  and  thence  through  Tyrone  and 
Antrim,  after  which  he  entered  Munster,  and  remained  there 
seven  years.  Finally,  he  returned  to  Armagh,  which  he  made 
his  episcopal  see,  and  died  at  Saul,  near  Downpatrick,  in  493. 

St.  Patrick  wrote  two  short  works,  both  of  which  have  sur- 
vived, his  Confession  and  his  Epistle  to  Corotictis.  In  neither 
are  there  any  graces  of  style,  and  the  Latin  is  certainly  not  that 
of  Cicero  or  Livy.  But  in  the  Confession  the  character  of  the 
author  himself  is  completely  revealed — his  piety,  his  zeal,  his 
self-sacrifice,  his  courage  in  face  of  every  danger  and  every 
trial.  Not  less  remarkable  was  the  skill  with  which  he  handled 
men  and  used  pagan  institutions  for  the  purposes  of  Christi- 
anity; and  equally  so  was  the  success  with  which  his  bloodless 
apostolate  was  crowned. 

One  great  difficulty  which  St.  Patrick  had  was  to  provide 
the  people  with  a  native  ministry.  At  first  he  selected  the 
chief  men — princes,  brehons,  bards — and  these,  with  little 
training  and  little  education,  he  ordained.  Thus,  slenderly 
equipped  with  knowledge,  the  priest,  with  his  ritual,  missal, 
and  a  catechism,  and  the  bishop,  with  his  crozier  and  bell,  went 
forth  to  do  battle  for  the  Lord.   This  condition  of  things  was 


THH  ISLAND  OF  SAINTS  AND  SCHOLARS 


11 


soon  ended.  In  450  a  college  was  founded  at  Armagh,  which 
in  a  short  time  grew  to  be  a  famous  school,  and  attracted 
students  from  afar.  Other  schools  were  founded  in  the  fifth 
century,  at  Noendrum,  Louth,  and  Kildare.  In  the  sixth  cen- 
tury arose  the  famous  monastic  schools  of  Clonfert,  Clonard. 
Clonmacnois,  Arran,  and  Bangor;  while  the  seventh  century 
saw  the  rise  of  Glendalough  and  Lismore. 

St.  Patrick  was  educated  in  Gaul,  at  the  monasteries  of 
Marmoutier  and  Lerins ;  and,  perhaps  as  a  result,  the  monastic 
character  of  the  early  Irish  church  was  one  of  its  outstanding 
features;  moreover  it  was  to  the  prevalence  of  the  monastic 
spirit,  the  desire  for  solitude  and  meditation,  that  so  many  of 
the  great  monastic  establishments  owed  their  existence.  Flee- 
ing from  society  and  its  attractions,  and  wishing  only  for  soli- 
tude and  austerity,  some  holy  man  sought  out  a  lonely  retreat, 
and  there  hved  a  life  of  mortification  and  prayer.  Others 
came  to  share  his  poverty  and  vigils ;  a  grant  of  land  was  then 
obtained  from  the  ruling  chief,  the  holy  man  became  abbot  and 
his  followers  his  monks;  and  a  religious  community  was 
formed  destined  soon  to  acquire  fame.  It  was  thus  that  St. 
Finnian  established  Clonard  on  the  banks  of  the  Boyne,  and  St. 
Kieran,  Clonmacnois  by  the  waters  of  the  Shannon ;  and  thus 
did  St.  Enda  make  the  wind-swept  Isles  of  Arran  the  home 
and  the  resting  place  of  so  many  saints.  Before  the  close  of 
the  sixth  century,  3,000  monks  followed  the  rule  of  St.  *Com- 
gall  at  Bangor ;  and  in  the  seventh  century,  St.  Carthage  made 
Lismore  famous  and  St.  Kevin  attracted  pious  men  from  afar 
to  his  lonely  retreat  in  the  picturesque  valley  of  Glendalough. 

And  there  were  holy  women  as  well  as  holy  men  in  Ireland. 
St.  Brigid  was  held  in  such  honor  that  she  is  often  called  the 
Mary  of  the  Gael.  Even  in  St.  Patrick's  day,  she  had  founded 
a  convent  at  Kildare,  beside  which  was  a  monastery  of  which 
St.  Conleth  was  superior;  and  she  founded  many  other  con- 
vents in  addition  to  that  at  Kildare.  Her  example  was  fol- 
lowed by  St.  Ita,  St.  Fanchea,  and  many  others ;  and  if  at  the 
close  of  the  sixth  century  there  were  few  districts  which  had 
not  monasteries  and  monks,  there  were  few  also  which  had  not 
convents  and  nuns. 

Nor  was  this  all.   Fired  with  missionary  zeal,  many  men  left 


12 


THE  GWRIES  OF  IRELAND 


Ireland  to  plant  the  faith  in  distant  lands.  Thus  did  St.  Colum- 
cille  settle  in  lona,  whence  he  converted  the  Picts.  Under  his 
successors,  St.  Aidan  and  his  friends  went  south  to  Lindis- 
f arne  to  convert  Northumbria  in  England ;  and  the  ninth  abbot 
of  lona  was  the  saintly  Adamnan,  whose  biography  of  St. 
Columcille  has  been  declared  by  competent  authority  to  be  the 
best  of  its  kind  of  which  the  whole  Middle  Ages  can  boast 
Nor  must  it  be  forgotten  that  the  monasteries  of  Luxeuil  and 
Bobbio  owed  their  origin  to  St.  Columbanus ;  that  St.  Gall  gave 
his  name  to  a  town  and  canton  in  Switzerland;  that  St.  Fri- 
dolin  labored  on  the  Rhine  and  St.  Fursey  on  the  Mame ;  and 
that  St.  Cathaldus  was  Bishop  of  Tarentum,  and  is  still  ven- 
erated as  the  patron  of  that  Italian  see. 

And  if  we  would  know  what  was  the  character  of  the  schools 
in  which  these  men  were  trained,  we  have  only  to  remember 
that  Colgu,  who  had  been  educated  at  Clonmacnois,  was  the 
master  of  Alcuin;  that  Dicuil  the  Geographer  came  from  the 
same  school;  that  Cummian,  Abbot  and  Bishop  of  Clonfert, 
combated  the  errors  about  the  paschal  computation  with  an 
extent  of  learning  and  a  wealth  of  knowledge  amazing  in  a 
monk  of  the  seventh  centur}';  and  that  at  the  close  of  the 
eighth  century  two  Irishmen  went  to  the  court  of  Charlemagne 
and  were  described  by  a  monk  of  St.  Gall  as  "men  incompar- 
ably skilled  in  human  learning".  The  once  pagan  Ireland  had 
by  that  time  become  a  citadel  of  Christianity,  and  was  right- 
fully called  the  School  of  the  West,  the  Island  of  Saints  and 
Scholars. 

With  this  state  of  progress  and  prosperity  the  Danes  played 
sad  havoc.  Animated  with  the  fiercest  pagan  fanaticism,  they 
turned  with  fury  against  Christianity,  and  especially  against 
monks  and  religious  foundations.  Armagh,  Clonmacnois, 
Bangor,  Kildare,  and  many  other  great  monastic  establish- 
ments thus  fell  before  their  fury.  Ignorance,  neglect  of  re- 
ligion, and  corruption  of  manners  followed,  and  from  the 
eighth  to  the  twelfth  century  there  was  a  noted  falling  off  in 
the  number  of  Irish  scholars.  At  home  indeed  were  Cormac 
and  Maelmurra,  O'Hartigan  and  O'Flynn,  and  abroad  was 
John  Scotus  Erigena,  whose  learning  was  so  great  that  it  ex- 
cited astonishment  even  at  Rome.    The  love  of  learning  and 


the:  ISI.AND  01?  SAINTS  AND  SCHOLARS 


13 


zeal  for  religion  lived  on  through  this  long  period  of  accumu- 
lated disasters.  After  the  triumph  of  Brian  Boru  at  Clontarf, 
there  was  a  distinct  revival  of  piety  and  learning;  and,  when  a 
century  of  turmoil  followed  Brian's  fall  and  religion  again 
suffered,  nothing  was  wanted  to  bring  the  people  back  to  a 
sense  of  their  duty  but  the  energy  and  reforming  zeal  of  St. 
Malachy. 

Gerald  Barry,  the  notorious  Anglo-Norman,  who  visited 
Ireland  towards  the  close  of  the  twelfth  century,  has  been 
convicted  out  of  his  own  mouth  when  he  states  that  Ireland 
was  a  barbarous  nation  when  his  people  came  there.  He  for- 
got that  a  people  who  could  illuminate  the  Book  of  Kells  and 
build  Cormac's  Chapel  could  not  be  called  savages,  nor  could 
a  church  be  lost  to  a  sense  of  decency  and  dignity  that  num- 
bered among  its  children  such  a  man  as  St.  Laurence  O'Toole. 
Abuses  there  were,  it  is  true,  consequent  on  long  continued 
war,  though  these  abuses  were  increased  rather  than  lessened 
by  the  coming  of  the  Anglo-Normans,  and  to  such  an  extent 
that  for  more  than  two  centuries  there  is  not  a  single  great 
name  among  Irish  scholars  except  Duns  Scotus. 

The  fame  of  Duns  Scotus  was  European,  and  the  Subtle 
Doctor,  as  he  was  called,  became  the  great  glory  of  the  Fran- 
ciscan, as  his  rival  St.  Thomas  was  the  great  glory  of  the 
Dominican,  order.  But  he  left  no  successor,  and  from  his 
death,  at  the  opening  of  the  fourteenth  century,  till  the  seven- 
teenth century  the  number  of  Irish  scholars  or  recognized 
Irish  saints  was  small.  Yet,  in  the  midst  of  disorders  within, 
and  despite  oppression  from  without,  at  no  time  did  the  love  of 
learning  disappear  in  Ireland ;  nor  was  there  ever  in  the  Irish 
church  either  heresy  or  schism. 

The  attempted  reformation  by  Henry  VIII  and  his  daughter 
Elizabeth  produced  martyrs  like  O'Hurley  and  O'Hely;  and 
there  were  many  more  martyrs  in  the  time  of  the  Stuarts,  and 
especially  under  the  short  but  sanguinary  rule  of  Cromwell. 

Those  were  the  days  of  the  penal  laws,  when  they  who 
clung  to  the  old  religion  suffered  much.  But  nothing  could 
shake  their  faith;  neither  the  proclamations  of  Elizabeth  and 
James,  the  massacres  of  Cromwell,  nor  the  ferocious  proscrip- 
tions of  the  eighteenth  century.   The  priest  said  Mass,  though 


14 


thj:  gudries  o^^  Ireland 


his  crime  was  punishable  by  death,  and  the  people  heard  Mass, 
though  theirs  also  was  a  criminal  offence;  and  the  school- 
master, driven  from  the  school,  taught  under  a  sheltering 
hedge.  The  clerical  student,  denied  education  at  home,  crossed 
the  sea,  to  be  educated  at  Louvain  or  Salamanca  or  Seville,  and 
then,  perhaps  loaded  with  academic  honors,  he  returned  home 
to  face  poverty  and  persecution  and  even  death.  The  Catholic 
masses,  socially  ostracised,  degraded,  and  impoverished,  shut 
out  from  every  avenue  to  ambition  or  enterprise,  deprived  of 
every  civil  right,  knowing  nothing  of  law  except  when  it 
oppressed  them  and  nothing  of  government  except  when  it 
struck  them  down,  yet  clung  to  the  religion  in  which  they  were 
born.  And  when,  in  the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
the  tide  turned  and  the  first  dawn  of  toleration  appeared  on 
the  horizon,  it  was  found  that  the  vast  majority  of  the  people 
were  unchanged,  and  that,  after  two  centuries  of  the  most 
relentless  persecution  since  the  days  of  Diocletian,  Ireland  was, 
in  faith  and  practice,  a  strongly  Catholic  nation  still. 

On  a  soil  constantly  wet  with  the  blood  and  tears  of  its  chil- 
dren, it  would  be  vain  to  expect  that  scholarship  could  flourish. 
And  yet  the  period  had  its  distinguished  Irish  scholars  both  at 
home  and  abroad.  At  Louvain,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  were 
Lombard  and  Creagh,  who  both  became  Archbishops  of 
Armagh,  and  O'Hurley  who  became  Archbishop  of  Cashel. 
An  even  greater  scholar  than  these  was  Luke  Wadding,  the 
eminent  Franciscan  who  founded  the  convent  of  St.  Isidore  at 
Rome.  At  Louvain  was  John  Colgan,  a  Franciscan  like  Wadd- 
ing, a  man  who  did  much  for  Irish  ecclesiastical  history.  And 
at  home  in  Ireland,  as  parish  priest  of  Tybrid  in  Tipperary, 
was  the  celebrated  Dr.  Geoffrey  Keating  the  historian,  once 
a  student  at  Salamanca.  John  Lynch,  the  renowned  opponent 
of  Gerald  Barry  the  Welshman,  was  Archdeacon  of  Tuam. 
And  in  the  ruined  Franciscan  monastery  of  Donegal,  the  Four 
Masters,  aided  and  encouraged  by  the  Friars,  labored  long  and 
patiently,  and  finally  completed  the  work  which  we  all  know 
as  the  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters.  This  work,  originally 
written  in  Irish,  remained  in  manuscript  in  Louvain  till  the 
middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  when  it  was  edited  and 
translated  into  English  by  John  O'Donovan,  one  of  Ireland's 


TH]^  ISLAND  OF  SAINTS  AND  SCHOLARS 


15 


greatest  Irish  scholars,  with  an  abiHty  and  completeness  quite 
worthy  of  the  original. 

On  the  Anglo-Irish  side  there  were  also  some  great  names, 
and  especially  in  the  domain  of  history,  notably  Stanyhurst 
and  Hammer,  Moryson  and  Campion  and  Davies,  and,  above 
all,  Ussher  and  Ware.  James  Ware  died  in  1666,  and  though 
a  Protestant  and  an  official  of  the  Protestant  government,  and 
living  in  Ireland  in  an  intolerant  age  and  in  an  atmosphere 
charged  with  religious  rancor,  he  was,  to  his  credit  be  it  said, 
to  a  large  extent  free  from  bigotry.  He  dealt  with  history 
and  antiquities,  and  wrote  in  no  party  spirit,  wishing  only  to 
be  fair  and  impartial,  and  to  set  out  the  truth  as  he  found  it. 
James  Ussher,  Archbishop  of  Armagh,  was  a  much  abler  man 
and  a  much  greater  scholar  than  Ware.  His  capacity  for  re- 
search, his  profound  scholarship,  the  variety  and  extent  of  his 
learning  raised  him  far  above  his  co-religionists,  and  he  has 
been  rightly  called  the  Great  Luminary  of  the  Irish  Protestant 
church.  It  is  regrettable  that  his  fine  intellect  was  darkened 
by  bigotry  and  intolerance. 

Far  different  was  the  character  of  another  Protestant  bishop, 
the  great  Berkeley,  of  Cloyne,  a  patriot,  a  philosopher,  and  a 
scholar,  who  afterwards  left  money  and  books  for  a  scholar- 
ship, which  is  still  in  existence,  at  the  then  infant  Yale  College 
in  New  England.  He  lived  in  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  when  the  whole  machinery  of  government  was  ruth- 
lessly used  to  crush  the  Catholics.  But  Berkeley  had  little 
sympathy  with  the  penal  laws ;  he  had  words  of  kindness  for 
the  Catholics,  and  undoubtedly  wished  them  well.  Nor  must 
Swift  be  forgotten,  for  though  he  took  little  pride  in  being  an 
Irishman,  he  hated  and  despised  those  who  oppressed  Ireland, 
and  is  rightly  regarded  as  one  of  the  greatest  of  her  sons. 

The  short  period  during  which  Grattan's  parliament  existed 
was  one  of  great  prosperity.  It  was  then  that  Maynooth  Col- 
lege was  established  for  the  education  of  the  Irish  priesthood. 
But  Catholics,  though  free  to  set  up  schools,  were  still  shut 
out  from  the  honors  and  emoluments  of  Trinity  College,  the 
one  university  at  that  time  in  Ireland.  Still,  Charles  O'Connor, 
MacGeoghegan,  and  O'Flaherty  were  great  Catholic  scholars 
in  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century. 


16 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


In  the  following  century,  while  Protestant  ascendancy  was 
still  maintained,  the  Catholics  had  greater  scope.  Away  back 
in  the  days  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  Campion  found  Latin  widely 
spoken  among  the  peasantry,  and  Father  Mooney  met  country 
lads  familiar  with  Virgil  and  Homer.  In  1G70,  Petty  had  a 
similar  story  to  tell,  in  spite  of  all  the  savageries  of  Cromwell 
and  the  ruin  which  necessarily  followed.  And  in  the  eighteenth 
century  the  schoolmaster,  though  a  price  was  set  on  his  head, 
was  still  active.  With  an  inherited  love  of  learning,  the  Irish 
in  the  nineteenth  century  would  have  made  rapid  progress  had 
they  been  rich.  But  their  impoverishment  by  the  penal  laws 
made  it  impossible  for  them  to  set  up  an  effective  system  of 
primary  education,  and  until  the  national  school  system  came 
into  existence  in  1831,  they  had  to  rely  on  the  hedge-schools? 
Secondary  education  fared  better,  for  the  bishops,  relying 
with  confidence  on  the  generosity  of  their  flocks,  were  soon 
able  to  establish  diocesan  colleges.  And  in  higher  education, 
equally  determined  efforts  were  made  by  the  establishment  of 
the  Catholic  University  under  Cardinal  Newman.  But  in  this 
field  of  intellectual  effort,  in  spite  of  the  energy  and  zeal  of 
the  bishops,  in  spite  of  the  great  generosity  of  the  people,  so 
many  of  whom  were  poor,  and  in  spite  of  the  fame  of  New- 
man, it  is  failure  rather  than  success  which  the  historian  has 
to  record. 

Nor  has  the  love  of  the  Irish  for  religion,  any  more  than 
their  love  of  learning,  been  lessened  or  enfeebled  by  time.  The 
mountain  side  as  the  place  for  Mass  in  the  penal  days  gradually 
gave  way  to  the  rude  stone  church  without  steeple  or  bell ;  and 
when  steeple  and  bell  ceased  to  be  proscribed,  and  the  people 
were  left  free  to  erect  suitable  houses  of  sacrifice  and  prayer, 
the  fine  churches  of  the  nineteenth  century  began  gradually  to 
appear.  The  unfettered  exercise  of  freedom  of  religious  wor- 
ship, the  untiring  efforts  of  a  zealous  clergy  and  episcopate, 
the  unstinted  support  of  a  people,  who  out  of  their  poverty 
grudged  nothing  to  God  or  to  God's  house,  formed  an  irre- 
sistible combination,  and  all  over  the  country  beautiful  churches 
are  now  to  be  found. 

In  every  diocese  in  Ireland,  with  scarcely  an  exception, 
there  is  now  a  stately  cathedral  to  perpetuate  the  renown  of 


THE  ISIvAND  OF  SAINTS  AND  SCHOLARS 


17 


the  patron  saint  of  that  diocese,  and  even  parish  churches  have 
been  built  not  unworthy  to  be  the  churches  of  an  ancient  see. 
At  Armagh,  a  cathedral  has  been  built  which  does  honor 
to  Irish  architecture,  and  worthily  commemorates  the  life 
and  labors  of  St.  Patrick,  the  founder  of  the  primatial  see; 
at  Thurles,  a  cathedral  stands,  the  chief  church  of  the  south- 
ern province,  statelier  far  than  any  which  ever  stood  on  the 
Rock  of  Cashel;  at  Tuam,  a  noble  building,  associated  with 
the  memory  of  John  MacHale,  the  Lion  of  the  Fold  of  Judah, 
perpetuates  the  name  of  St.  Jarlath ;  at  Queenstown,  the  trav- 
eller, going  to  America  or  returning  from  it  to  the  old  land, 
has  his  attention  attracted  to  the  splendid  cathedral  pile  sacred 
to  St.  Colman,  the  patron  saint  of  the  diocese  of  Cloyne ;  and 
if  we  would  see  how  splendid  even  a  parish  church  may  be,  let 
us  visit  the  beautiful  church  in  Drogheda,  dedicated  to  the 
memory  of  Oliver  Plunkett. 

Nor  are  these  things  the  only  evidence  we  have  that  zeal  for 
religion  among  the  Irish  has  survived  centuries  of  persecu- 
tion. Columbanus  and  Columcille  have  still  their  successors, 
eager  and  ready  as  they^  were  to  bring  the  blessings  of  the 
Gospel  to  distant  lands.  In  recent  years  an  Irish-bom  Arch- 
bishop of  Sydney  has  been  succeeded  by  an  Irish-born  Arch- 
bishop; an  Irishman  rules  the  metropolitan  see  of  Adelaide; 
and  an  Irish-born  Archbishop  of  Melbourne  has  as  his  coad- 
jutor a  former  president  of  the  College  of  Maynooth.  In 
South  Africa,  the  work  of  preaching  and  teaching  and  ruling 
the  church  is  largely  the  work  of  Irish-born  men.  In  the 
great  Republic  of  the  West  the  three  cardinal-archbishops  at 
the  head  of  the  Catholic  Church  have  the  distinctively  Irish 
names  of  Gibbons  and  Farley  and  O'Connell ;  and  in  every 
diocese  throughout  the  United  States  the  proportion  of  priests 
of  Irish  birth  or  descent  is  large. 

Nor  m.ust  the  poorer  Irish  be  forgotten.  How  much  does 
the  Catholic  Church,  both  in  Ireland  and  in  America,  owe  to 
the  generosity  of  Irish- American  laborers  and  servant  girls! 
Out  of  their  scanty  and  hard-earned  pay  they  have  contributed 
much  not  only  towards  the  building  of  the  plain  wooden  church 
in  the  rural  parishes,  but  also  of  the  stately  cathedrals  of  Ameri- 
can cities.    And  many  a  church  in  old  Ireland  owes  its  com- 


18 


THE  GU)RIES  or  IRELAND 


pletion  and  its  adornment  to  the  dollars  given  by  the  poor  but 

generous  Irish  exiles. 

And  if  the  zeal  of  the  Irish  for  religion  has  thus  survived  to 
the  twentieth  century,  so  also  in  an  equally  remarkable  degree 
has  their  zeal  for  learning.  We  have  evidence  of  this  in  the 
numerous  primary  schools  in  every  parish,  filled  v^ith  eager 
pupils  and  presided  over  by  hard  working  teachers ;  in  the 
colleges  where  the  sciences  and  the  classics  are  studied  with 
the  same  energy  as  in  the  ancient  monastic  schools;  and  in 
Maynooth  College,  which  is  the  foremost  ecclesiastical  college  in 
the  world.  And  if  there  are  now  new  universities,  the  National 
and  the  Queen's,  sturdy  and  vigorous  in  their  youth,  this  does 
not  imply  that  Trinity  College  suffers  from  the  decreptitude  of 
age.  For  among  those  whom  she  sent  forth  in  recent  times  are 
Dowden  and  Mahaf?y  and  Lecky,  to  name  but  three,  and  these 
would  do  credit  to  any  university  in  Europe. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  find  in  any  age  of  Irish  history  a 
greater  pulpit  orator  than  the  famous  Dominican,  Father  Tom 
Burke,  or  a  more  delightful  essayist  than  Father  Joseph  Far- 
rell;  and  who  has  depicted  Irish  clerical  life  more  faithfully 
than  the  late  Canon  Sheehan,  whose  fame  as  a  novelist  has 
crossed  continents  and  oceans  ?  O'Connell  was  a  great  orator 
as  well  as  a  great  political  leader,  and  Dr.  Doyle  and  Arch- 
bishop John  MacHale  were  scholars  as  well  as  statesmen  and 
bishops.  We  have  thus  an  unbroken  chain  of  great  names,  a 
series  of  Irishmen  whom  the  succeeding  ages  have  brought 
forth  to  enlighten  and  instruct  lesser  men ;  and  Ireland,  in  the 
twentieth  century,  is  not  less  attached  to  religion  and  learning 
than  she  was  when  Clonmacnois  flourished  and  the  saintly 
Carthage  ruled  at  Lismore. 

References  : 

Joyce:  Social  History  of  Ancient  Ireland  (Dublin,  1903);  Lani- 
gan:  Ecclesiastical  History  ot  Ireland  (Dublin,  1822);  Healy:  Ire- 
land's Ancient  Schools  and  Scholars  (Dublin,  1896),  Life  and  Writ- 
injrs  of  St.  Patrick  (Dublin,  1905)  ;  Cury :  St.  Patrick  and  his  Place 
in  History  (London,  1905)  ;  Ussher's  Works  (Dublin,  1847)  ;  Reeves: 
Adamnan's  Life  of  St.  Columba  (Dublin,  1851)  ;  Worsae :  The  Danes 
in  Ireland  (London,  1852)  ;  Moran :  Essays  on  the  Early  Irish  Church 


Tlllv  ISLAND  0^  SAINTS  AND  SCHOLARS 


(Dublin,  1864)  ;  Stokes:  Ireland  and  the  Anglo-Norman  Church  (Lon- 
don, 1897)  ;  Mant;  History  of  the  Church  of  Ireland  (London,  1841)  ; 
Bagwell:  Ireland  under  the  Tudors  (London,  1885-90)  ;  Moran:  Per- 
secutions under  the  Puritans  (Callan,  1903)  ;  Murphy:  Our  Martyrs 
(Dublin,  1896)  ;  Meehan :  Franciscan  Monasteries  of  the  Seventeenth 
Century  (Dublin,  ISTO)  ;  Lecky :  History  of  Ireland  in  the  Eighteenth 
Century  (London,  1902)  ;  O'Connell's  Correspondence  (Lundon, 
18S8)  ;  Wyse:  History  of  the  Catholic  Association  (London,  1829)  ; 
&oyle:  Letters  on  the  State  of  Irclniid  (Dublin,  1826);  O'Rorke : 
Irish  Famine  (Dublin,  1902)  ;  Gavan  Duffy:  Young  Ireland  (London, 
1880);  Plunkett:  Ireland  in  the  New  Century  (London,  1904); 
O'Riordan:  Catholicity  and  Progress  in  Ireland  (London,  1905); 
MacCaffery :  History  of  the  Church  in  the  Nineteenth  Century  (Dub- 
lin, 1909)  ;  Healy:  Centenary  History  of  Maynooth  College  (Dublin, 
1905)  ;  D'Alton:  History  of  Ireland  (London,  1910). 


(3) 


IRISH  MONKS  IN  EUROPE 


By  Rev.  Columba  Edmonds,  O.  S.  B. 

ST.  PATRICK'S  work  in  Ireland  was  chiefly  concerned 
with  preaching  the  faith  and  establishing  monasteries 
which  served  as  centres  of  education.  The  great  success  that 
attended  these  efforts  earned  for  Ireland  the  double  title  of 
Island  of  Saints  and  a  Second  Thebaid. 

The  monastic  institutions  organized  by  St.  Patrick  were 
characterized  from  their  commencement  by  an  apostolic  zeal 
that  knew  no  bounds.  Sufficient  scope  was  not  to  be  found  at 
home,  so  it  was  impatient  to  diffuse  itself  abroad. 

SCOTLAND:  Hence  in  the  year  563  St.  Columcille,  a 
Donegal  native  of  royal  descent,  accompanied  by  twelve  com- 
panions, crossed  the  sea  in  currachs  of  wickerwork  and  hides, 
and  sought  to  land  in  Caledonia.  They  reached  the  desolate 
Isle  of  lona  on  the  day  preceding  Whitsunday. 

Many  years  before,  colonies  of  Irishmen  had  settled  along 
the  western  parts  of  the  present  Scotland.  The  settlement 
north  of  the  Clyde  received  the  name  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Dalriada.  These  Dalriadan  Irish  were  Christian  at  least  in 
name,  but  their  neighbors  in  the  Pictish  Highlands  were  still 
pagans.  Columcille's  apostolate  was  to  be  among  both  these 
peoples.  Adamnan  says  that  Columcille  came  to  Caledonia 
"for  the  love  of  Christ*s  name",  and  well  did  his  after-life 
prove  the  truth  of  this  statement.  He  had  attained  his  forty- 
fourth  year  when  King  Conall,  his  kinsman,  bestowed  lona 
upon  him  and  his  brethren.  The  island,  situated  between  the 
Dalriadans  and  the  Picts  of  the  Highlands,  was  conveniently 
placed  for  missionary  work.  A  numerous  community  recruited 
from  Ireland,  with  Columcille  as  its  Abbot,  soon  caused  lona 
to  become  a  flourishing  centre  from  which  men  could  go  forth 
to  preach  Christianity.  Monasteries  and  hermitages  rapidly 
sprang  up  in  the  adjacent  islands  and  on  the  mainland.  These, 
together  with  the  Columban  foundations  in  Ireland,  formed 
one  great  religious  federation,  in  which  the  Celtic  apostles  of 
the  northern  races  were  formed  under  the  influence  of  the 
holy  founder. 


IRISH  MONKS  IN  KUROPi: 


21 


St.  Columcille  recognized  the  need  of  securing  permanence 
for  his  work  by  obtaining  the  conversion  of  the  Pictish  rulers, 
and  thus  he  did  not  hesitate  to  approach  King  Brude  in  his 
castle  on  the  banks  of  the  River  Ness.  St.  Comgall  and  St. 
Canice  were  Columcille's  companions  on  his  journey  through 
the  great  glen,  now  famous  for  the  Caledonian  Canal.  The 
royal  convert  Brude  was  baptized,  and  by  degrees  the  people 
followed  the  example  set  them.  Opposition,  however,  was 
keen  and  aggressive,  and  it  came  from  the  official  representa- 
tives of  Pictish  paganism — the  Druids. 

Success,  too,  attended  Columcille's  ministrations  among  the 
Dalriadans,  and  on  the  death  of  their  king,  Aidan  Gabhran, 
who  succeeded  to  the  throne,  sought  regal  consecration  from 
the  hands  of  Columcille.  In  597  the  saint  died,  but  not  before 
he  had  won  a  whole  kingdom  to  Christ  and  covered  the  land 
with  churches  and  monasteries.  Today  his  name  is  held  in 
honor  not  by  Irishmen  alone,  but  by  the  Catholics  and  non- 
Catholics  of  the  land  of  his  adoption. 

There  are  other  saints  who  either  labored  in  person  with 
Columcille  or  perpetuated  the  work  he  accomplished  in  Cale- 
donia; and  their  names  add  to  the  glory  of  Ireland,  their  birth- 
land.  Thus  St.  Moluag  (592)  converted  the  people  of  Lis- 
more,  and  afterwards  died  at  Rosemarkie;  St.'  Drostan,  St. 
Columcille's  friend  and  disciple,  established  the  faith  in  Aber- 
deenshire and  became  abbot  of  Deer;  St.  Kieran  (548)  evan- 
gelized Kintyre;  St.  Mun  (635)  labored  in  Argyleshire;  St. 
Buite  (521)  did  the  same  in  Pictland;  St.  Maelrubha  (722) 
preached  in  Ross-shire;  St.  Modan  and  St.  Machar  benefited 
tlie  dwellers  on  the  western  and  eastern  coasts  respectively; 
and  St.  Fergus  in  the  eighth  century  became  apostle  of  Forfar, 
Buchan,  and  Caithness. 

DISTANT  ISLANDS :  But  Irish  monks  were  mariners  as 
well  as  apostles.  Their  hide-covered  currachs  were  often 
launched  in  the  hope  of  discovering  solitudes  in  the  ocean. 
Adamnan  records  that  Baitan  set  out  with  others  in  search  of 
a  desert  in  the  sea.  St.  Cormac  sought  a  similar  retreat  and 
arrived  at  the  Orkneys.  St.  Molaise's  holy  isle  guards  Lam- 
lash  Bay,  off  Arran.  The  island  retreats  of  the  Bass,  Inch- 
keith,  May,  and  Inchcolm,  in  the  Firth  of  Forth,  are  associated 


THE  GIvORlKS  OF  IRELAND 


with  the  Irish  saints  Baldred,  Adamnan,  Adrian,  and  Colum- 
cille.  St.  Maccaldus,  a  native  of  Down,  became  bishop  of  the 
Isle  of  Man. 

Remarkable,  too,  is  the  fact  that  Irish  monks  sailed  by  way 
of  the  Faroe  Islands  to  distant  Iceland.  These  sailor-clerics, 
who  settled  on  the  southeast  of  the  island,  were  spoken  of  by 
later  Norwegians  as  "papar."  After  their  departure — they 
were  probably  driven  away  by  Norwegian  pagans — these  Ice- 
landic apostles  "left  behind  them  Irish  books,  bells,  and 
croziers,  wherefrom  one  could  understand  they  were  Irish- 
men." 

But  St.  Brendan,  the  voyager,  is  the  most  wonderful  of  the 
mariner  monks  of  Ireland.  He  accomplished  apostolic  work 
in  both  Wales  and  Scotland,  but  his  seafaring  instincts  urged 
him  to  make  missionary  voyages  to  regions  hitherto  unknown. 
Some  writers,  not  without  reason,  have  actually  maintained 
that  he  and  his  followers  traveled  as  far  as  the  American 
shore.  Be  this  as  it  may,  the  tradition  of  the  discoveries  of 
this  Irish  monk  kept  in  mind  the  possibly  existing  western 
land,  and  issued  at  last  in  the  discovery  of  the  great  continent 
of  America  by  Columbus. 

NORTHUMBRI A :  Turn  now  to  Northumbria.  Adamnan 
writes  that  St.  Columcille's  name  was  honored  not  only  in 
Gaul,  Spain,  and  Italy,  but  in  Rome  itself.  England,  however, 
owes  to  it  a  special  veneration,  because  of  the  widespread 
apostolic  work  accomplished  within  her  borders  by  Colum- 
cille's Irish  disciples.  The  facts  are  as  follows  :  Northumbrian 
Christianity  was  well-nigh  exterminated  through  the  victory 
of  Penda  the  pagan  over  Edwin  the  Christian,  A.  D.  633.  St. 
Paulinus,  its  local  Roman  apostle,  was  driven  permanently 
from  his  newly  founded  churches.  Meanwhile  Oswald  and  his 
brother  Edwith  sought  refuge  among  the  Irish  monks  of  lona, 
and  received  baptism  at  their  hands.  Edwith  died  and  Oswald 
became  heir  to  the  throne.  A  battle  was  fought.  The  day 
before  he  met  the  pagan  army,  between  the  Tyne  and  the 
Solway,  Oswald  beheld  St.  Columcille  in  vision  saying  to 
him :  "Be  strong  and  of  good  faith ;  I  will  be  with  thee."  The 
result  of  this  vision  of  the  abbot  of  lona  was  that  a  consider- 
able part  of  England  received  the  true  faith.    Oswald  was 


IRISH  MONKS  IN  EUROPE 


23 


victorious ;  he  united  the  kingdoms  of  Deira  and  Bernicia,  and 
became  overlord  of  practically  all  England,  with«the  exception 
of  Kent.  There  was  evangelization  to  be  done,  and  St.  Oswald 
turned  to  lona.  In  response  to  his  appeal,  the  Irish  bishop, 
St.  Aidan,  was  sent  with  several  companions.  They  were 
established  on  the  island  of  Lindisfarne,  in  sight  of  the  royal 
residence  at  Bamborough.  These  monks  labored  in  union 
with,  and  even  seemed  to  exceed  in  zeal,  the  Roman  mission- 
aries in  the  south  under  St.  Augustine.  However  great  the 
enthusiasm  they  had  displayed  for  conversions  in  lona,  they 
displayed  still  greater  on  the  desolate  isle  of  Lindisfarne.  In 
the  first  instance  St.  Aidan  and  his  monks  evangelized  North- 
umbria.  Want  of  facility  in  preaching  in  the  Anglo-Saxon 
tongue  was  at  first  an  obstacle,  but  it  was  speedily  overcome, 
for  king  Oswald  himself,  who  knew  both  Gaelic  and  English, 
came  forward  and  acted  as  interpreter. 

When  St.  Aidan  died  in  651,  lona  sent  St.  Finan,  another 
Irish  bishop,  to  succeed  him.  Finan  spread  the  faith  beyond 
the  borders  of  Northumbria  and  succeeded  so  well  that  he 
himself  baptized  Penda,  king  of  the  Mid-Angles,  and  Sigebert, 
king  of  the  East  Saxons.  Diuma  and  Cellach,  Irish  monks, 
assisted  by  three  Anglo-Saxon  disciples  of  St.  Aidan,  con- 
solidated the  mission  to  the  Mercians. 

ANGLIA:  While  Christianity  was  thus  being  restored  in 
Northumbria,  other  Irish  apostles  were  teaching  it  in  East 
Anglia.  St.  Fursey,  accompanied  by  his  brother  St.  Foillan 
and  St.  Ultan  and  the  priests  Gobham  and  Dicuil,  landed  in 
England  in  633,  and  began  to  labor  in  the  eastern  portions  of 
Anglia.  In  his  monastery  at  Burghcastle,  in  Suffolk,  the  con- 
vert king  Sigebert  made  his  monastic  profession,  and  in  the 
same  house  many  heavenly  visions  were  vouchsafed  to  its 
founder. 

The  South  Saxons  had  in  Dicuil  an  apostle  who  founded 
the  monastery  of  Bosham  in  Sussex,  whence  originated  the 
episcopal  see  of  Chichester.  Another  Irish  monk  named 
Maeldubh  settled  among  the  West  Saxons  and  became  the 
founder  of  Malmesbury  Abbey  and  the  instructor  of  the  well- 
known  St.  Aldhelm. 

Thus  did  Irish  monks  contribute  to  the  conversion  of  Great 


24 


THE  GIvORlES  IRELAND 


Britain  and  its  many  distant  islands.  They  built  up  the  faith 
by  their  holy  lives,  their  preaching,  and  their  enthusiasm,  and 
wisely  provided  for  its  perpetuation  by  educating  a  native 
clergy  and  by  the  founding  of  monastic  institutions. 

They  were  not  yet  satisfied,  so  they  turned  towards  other 
lands  to  bring  to  other  peoples  the  glad  tidings  af  salvation. 

GAUL:  In  590' St.  Columbanus,  a  monk  of  Bangor  in  Ire- 
land, accompanied  by  twelve  brethren,  arrived  in  France,  hav- 
ing passed  through  Britain.^^  After  the  example  of  St.  Colum- 
cille  in  Caledonia,  they  traveled  to  the  court  of  Gontram, 
king  of  Burgundy,  in  order  to  secure  his  help  and  protection.^ 
During  the  course  of  the  journey  they  preached  to  the  people, 
and  all  were  impressed  with  their  modesty,  patience,  and  devo- 
tion.  At  that  epoch  Gaul  was  sadly  in  need  of  such  mission- 
aries, for,  owing  partly  to  the  invasion  of  barbarians  and 
partly  to  remissness  on  the  part  of  the  clergy,  vice  and  impiety 
everywhere  prevailed.    Columbanus,  because  of  his  zeal,  sanc- 
tity, and  learning,  was  well  fitted  for  the  task  that  lay  before 
him.    One  of  his  early  works  in  Burgundy  was  the  founding 
of  the  monastery  of  Luxeuil,  which  became  the  parent  of 
many  other  monasteries  founded  either  by  himself  or  by  his 
disciples.   Many  holy  men  came  from  Ireland  to  join  the  com- 
munity, and  so  numerous  did  the  monks  of  Luxeuil  become 
that  separate  choirs  were  formed  to  keep  up  perpetual  praise — V 
the  "laus  perennis".    But  Columbanus  did  not  remain  at 
Luxeuil.    In  his  strict  uncompromising  preaching  he  spared 
not  even  kings,  and  he  preferred  to  leave  his  flourishing  mon- 
astery rather  than  pass  over  in  silence  the  vices  of  the  Mero- 
vingians.   He  escaped  from  the  malice  of  Brunehaut,  and, 
being  banished  from  Burgundy,  made  his  way  to  Neustria,  and 
thence  to  Metz.    Full  of  zeal,  he  resolved  to  preach  the  faith 
to  the  pagans  along  the  Rhine,  and  with  this  purpose  set  out 
with  a  few  of  his  followers.    They  proceeded  as  far  as  the 
Lake  of  Zurich,  and  finally  established  themselves  at  Bregentz, 
on  the  Lake  of  Constance. 

By  this  time  his  disciple  St.  Gall  had  learned  the  Alemannian 
dialect,  which  enabled  him  to  push  forward  the  work  of  evan- 
gelization. But  Columbanus  felt  that  he  was  called  to  labor 
in  other  lands  while  vigor  remained  to  him,  so,  bidding  his 


IRISH  MONKS  IN  RUROPE 


25 


favorite  follower  farewell,  he  crossed  the  Alps  and  arrived  at 
Milan  in  northern  Italy.  King  Agilulph  and  his  queen,  Theo- 
delinda,  gave  the  Irish  abbot  a  reverent  and  kind  welcome. 
His  zeal  was  still  unspent,  and  he  worked  much  for  the  con- 
version of  the  Lombard  Arians.  Here  he  founded,  between 
Milan  and  Genoa,  the  monastery  of  Bobbio,  which  as  a  centre 
of  knowledge  and  piety  was  long  the  light  of  northern  Italy. 
In  this  monastery  he  died  in  the  year  615,  but  not  before  the 
arrival  of  messengers  from  King  Clothaire,  inviting  him  to 
return  to  Luxeuil,  as  his  enemies  were  now  no  more.  But  he 
could  not  go ;  all  he  asked  was  protection  for  his  dear  monks 
at  Luxeuil. 

It  has  been  said  most  truly  that  Ireland  never  sent  a  greater 
son  to  do  God's  work  in  foreign  lands  than  Columbanus.  The 
fruit  of  his  labors  remained ;  and  for  centuries  after  his  death 
his  influence  was  widely  felt  throughout  Europe,  especially  in 
France  and  Italy.  His  zeal  for  the  interests  of  God  was  un- 
bounded, and  this  was  the  secret  of  his  immense  power.  Some 
of  his  writings  have  come  down  to  us,  and  comprise  his  Rule 
for  Monks,  his  Penitential,  sixteen  short  sermons,  six  letters, 
and  several  poems,  all  in  Latin.  His  letters  are  of  much  value 
as  evidence  of  Ireland's  ancient  belief  in  papal  supremacy. 

SWITZERLAND :  Gall,  Columbanus's  disciple,  remained 
in  Switzerland.  In  a  fertile  valley,  lying  between  two  rivers 
and  surrounded  by  hills,  he  laid  the  beginnings  of  the  great 
abbey  which  afterwards  bore  his  name  and  became  one  of 
the  most  famous  monasteries  in  Christendom.  St.  Gall  spent 
thirty  years  of  his  life  in  Helvetia,  occupying  himself  in  teach- 
ing, preaching,  and  prayer.  He  succeeded  where  others  had 
failed,  and  that  which  was  denied  to  Columbanus  was  reserved 
for  Gall,  his  disciple,  and  the  latter  is  entitled  the  Apostle  of 
Alemannia. 

Other  districts  had  their  Irish  missionaries  and  apostles. 
Not  far  from  St.  Gall,  at  Seckingen,  near  Basle,  St.  Fridolin 
was  a  pioneer  in  the  work  of  evangelization. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  seventh  century  St.  Kilian,  an 
Irishman,  with  his  companions,  Totnan  and  Colman,  arrived 
in  Franconia.  He  was  martyred  in  Wiirtzburg,  where  he  is 
honored  as  patron  and  apostle. 


26 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


Sigisbert,  another  Irish  follower  of  St.  Columbanus,  spread 
the  faith  among  the  half-pagan  people  of  eastern  Helvetia, 
and  founded  the  monastery  of  Dissentis  in  Rhaetia. 

St.  Ursanne,  a  little  town  on  the  boundaries  of  Switzerland, 
took  its  origin  from  another  disciple  of  St.  Columbanus. 

OTHER  APOSTLES  AND  FOUNDERS :  Desire  for  soli- 
*  tary  life  drew  St.  Fiacre  to  a  hermitage  near  Meaux,  where 
he  transformed  w^ooded  glades  into  gardens  to  provide  veg- 
etables for  poor  people.  This  charity  has  earned  for  Fiacre 
the  title  of  patron  saint  of  gardeners. 

St.  Fursey,  the  illustrious  apostle  of  East  Anglia,  crossed 
over  to  France,  where  he  travelled  and  preached  continuously. 
He  built  a  monastery  at  Lagny-sur-Mame,  and  was  about  to 
return  to  East  Anglia  when  he  died  at  MezeroUes,  near  Doul- 
lens.  St.  Gobham  followed  his  master's  example,  and  like 
him  evangelized  and  founded  monasteries.  St.  Etto  (Ze)  acted 
in  like  manner.  St.  Foillan  and  St.  Ultan,  brothers  of  St. 
Fursey,  became  apostles  in  southern  Brabant. 

The  monastery  of  Honau,  on  an  island  near  Strasburg,  and 
that  of  Altomiinster,  in  Bavaria,  owe  their  foundation  to  the 
Irish  monks  Tuban  and  Alto,  respectively. 

Not  far  from  Luxeuil  was  the  Abbey  of  Lure,  another  great 
Irish  foundation,  due  to  Deicolus  (Desle,  Dichuill),  a  brother 
of  St.  Gall  and  a  disciple  of  St.  Columbanus.  So  important 
was  this  house  considered  in  later  times  that  its  abbot  was 
numbered  among  the  princes  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire. 

Rouen,  in  Normandy,  felt  the  influence  of  the  Irish  monks 
through  the  instrumentality  of  St.  Ouen ;  and  the  monasteries 
of  Jouarre,  Rebais,  Jumieges,  Leuconaus,  and  St.  Vandrille 
were  due  at  least  indirectly  to  Columbanus  or  his  disciples. 

Turning  to  Belgium,  it  is  recorded  that  St.  Romold  preached 
the  faith  in  Mechlin,  and  St.  Livinus  in  Ghent.  Both  came 
from  Ireland. 

St.  Virgilius,  a  voluntary  exile  from  Erin,  "for  the  love  of 
Christ",  established  his  monastery  at  Salzburg,  in  Austria.  He 
became  bishop  there,  and  died  in  781. 

Moreover,  the  Celtic  Rule  of  Columbanus  was  carried  into 
Picardy  by  St.  Valer}%  St.  Om.er,  St.  Bertin,  St.  Mummolin, 
and  St.  Valdelenus;  but  the  Irish  Caidoc  and  Fricor  had 


IRISH  MONKS  IN  EUROPE 


27 


already  preceded  them,  their  work  resulting  in  the  foundation 
of  the  Abbey  of  St.  Riquier. 

ITALY:  Something-  yet  remains  to  be  said  of  the  monks  of 
Ireland  in  Italy.  Anterior  to  St.  Columbanus's  migration,  his 
fellow  countryman,  St.  Frigidian  (or  Fridian),  had  taken  up 
his  abode  in  Italy  at  Monte  Pisana,  not  far  from  the  city  of 
Lucca,  where  he  became  famed  for  sanctity  and  wisdom.  On 
the  death  of  the  bishop  of  Lucca,  Frigidian  was  compelled  to 
occupy  the  vacant  see.  St.  Gregory  the  Great  wrote  of  him 
that  "he  was  a  man  of  rare  yirtue".  His  teachings  and  holy 
life  not  only  influenced  the  lives  of  his  own  flock,  but  brought 
to  the  faith  many  heretics  and  pagans.  In  Lucca  this  Celtic 
apostle  is  still  honored  u^ider  the  name  of  St.  Frediano. 

St.  Pellegrinus  is  another  Irish  saint  who  sought  solitude  at 
Garfanana  in  the  Apennines;  and  Cathaldus,  a  Waterford 
saint,  in  680,  became  Bishop  of  Taranto,  which  he  governed 
for  many  years  with  zeal  and  great  wisdom.  His  co-worker 
was  Donatus,  his  brother,  who  founded  the  church  at  Lecce 
in  the  Kingdom  of  Naples. 

Of  the  two  learned  Irishmen,  Clemens  and  Albinus,  who 
resided  in  France  in  the  eighth  century,  Albinus  was  sent  into 
Italy,  where  at  Pavia  he  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the  school 
attached  to  St.  Augustine's  monastery.  Dungal,  his  compa- 
triot, was  a  famous  teacher  in  the  same  city.  Lothair  thus 
ordained  concerning  him :  "We  desire  that  at  Pavia,  and  under 
the  superintendence  of  Dungal,  all  students  should  assemble 
from  Milan,  Brescia,  Lodi,  Bergamo,  Novara,  Vercelli,  Tor- 
tona,  Acqui,  Genoa,  Asti,  Como." 

It  was  this  same  Dungal  who  presented  the  Bangor  psalter 
to  Bobbio  ;  therefore  it  may  be  reasonably  conjectured  that  he 
came  from  the  very  monastery  that  produced  Columbanus, 
Gall,  and  Comgall. 

Fiesole,  in  Tuscany,  venerates  two  Irish  eighth-century 
saints,  Donatus  and  Andrew.  The  former  was  educated  at 
Iniscaltra,  and  Andrew  was  his  friend  and  disciple.  After 
visiting  Rome,  they  lingered  at  Fiesole.  Donatus  was  received 
with  great  honor  by  clergy  and  people  and  was  requested  to 
fill  their  vacant  bishopric.  With  much  hesitation  he  took  upon 
himself  -the  burden,  which  he  bore  for  many  years.  His 


28 


the:  glories  of  IRELAND 


biographer  says  of  him  that  "he  was  liberal  in  almsgiving, 
sedulous  in  watching,  devout  in  prayer,  excellent  in  doctrine, 
ready  in  speech,  holy  in  life."  Andrew,  who  was  his  deacon, 
founded  the  church  and  monastery  of  St.  Martin  in  Mensola, 
and  is  known  in  Fiesole  as  St.  Andrew  of  Ireland,  or  St. 
Andrew  the  Scot,  that  is,  the  Irishman. 

HOSPITALIA:  Thus  Irish  monks  were  to  be  found  in 
France,  Belgium,  Switzerland,  Germany,  and  Italy,  and  even 
in  Bulgaria.  So  numerous  were  they  and  so  frequent  their 
travels  through  the  different  countries  of  Europe  that  hospices 
were  founded  to  befriend  them.  These  institutions  were 
known  as  "Hospitalia  Scottorum  ("Hospices  for  the  Irish"), 
and  their  benefactors  were  not  only  pious  laymen  but  the  high- 
est ecclesiastical  authorities.  Sometimes  the  hospices  were 
diverted  to  purposes  other  than  those  originally  intended,  and 
then  Church  Councils  would  intervene  in  favor  of  the  lawful 
inheritors.  Thus  in  845  we  read  that  the  Council  of  Meaux 
ordered  the  hospices  in  France  to  be  restored  to  the  dispos- 
sessed Irishmen.  In  the  twelfth  century  Ireland  still  continued 
to  send  forth  a  constant  succession  of  monk-pilgrims,  renowned 
for  faith,  austerity,  and  piety. 

RATISBON :  Special  monasteries  were  erected  to  be  peo- 
pled by  the  Irish.  The  most  renowned  of  these  dates  from 
1067,  when  Marianus  Scotus  ("Marianus  the  Irishman"),  with 
his  companions,  John  and  Candidus,  left  his  native  land  and 
arrived  in  Bavaria.  These  holy  men  were  welcomed  at  Ratis- 
bon  by  the  Bishop  Otto ;  and  on  the  advice  of  Murcherat,  an 
Irish  recluse,  took  up  their  residence  near  St.  Peter's  church 
at  the  outskirts  of  the  city.  Novices  flocked  from  Ireland  to 
join  them  and  a  monastery  was  erected  to  receive  the  com- 
munity. In  a  short  time  this  had  to  be  replaced  by  a  still 
larger  one,  which  was  known  to  future  ages  as  the  Abbey  of 
St.  James's  of  the  Scots  (that  is,  Irish)  at  Ratisbon.  How 
prolific  was  this  parent  foundation  is  evidenced  from  its  many 
ofifshoots,  the  only  surviving  monasteries  on  the  continent  for 
many  centuries  intended  for  Irish  brethren.  These,  besides 
St.  James's  at  Erfurt  and  St.  Peter's  at  Ratisbon,  comprised 
St.  James's  at  Wiirtzburg,  St.  Giles's  at  Nuremberg,  St.  Mary's 
at  Vienna,  St.  James's  at  Constance,  St.  Nicholas's  at  Mem- 


IlilvSH  MONKS  IN  EUROPE 


29 


mingen,  Holy  Cross  at  Eichstatt,  a  Priory  at  Kelheim  and 
another  at  Oels  in  Silesia,  all  of  which  were  founded  during 
the  twelfth  or  thirteenth  century,  and  formed  a  Benedictine 
congregation  approved  of  by  Pope  Innocent  III.,  and  presided 
over  by  the  Abbot  of  Ratisbon.  These  Irish  houses,  with  their 
long  lines  of  Celtic  abbots,  in  the  days  of  their  prosperity  did 
much  work  that  was  excellent  and  civilizing,  and  rightly  de- 
serve a  remembrance  in  the  achievements  of  Ireland's  ancient 
missionaries. 

Ratisbon  and  its  dependent  abbeys,  as  is  set  forth  in  the 
papal  briefs  of  1248,  possessed  priories  in  Ireland,  and,  from 
these,  novices  were  usually  obtained. 

But  evil  days  came  for  the  Congregation  of  St.  James,  and 
now  it  is  extinct.  The  subjugation  of  Ireland  to  England,  says 
Wattenbach,  contributed  no  doubt  to  the  rapid  decline  of  the 
Scotic  (that  is,  Irish)  monasteries.  For  from  Ireland  they 
had  up  till  then  been  continually  receiving  fresh  supplies  of 
strength.  In  this  their  fatherland  the  root  of  their  vitality 
was  to  be  found.  Loss  of  independence  involved  loss  of 
enterprise. 

SCHOLARSHIP  AND  INFLUENCE :  Irish  monks  were 
not  only  apostles  of  souls,  but  also  masters  of  intellectual  life. 
Thus  in  the  seventh  century  the  Celtic  monastery  of  Luxeuil 
became  the  most  celebrated  school  in  Christendom.  Monks 
from  other  houses  and  sons  of  the  nobility  crowded  to  it.  The 
latter  were  clearly  not  intended  for  the  cloister,  but  destined 
for  callings  in  the  world. 

There  were  outstanding  men  among  these  missionaries  from 
Ireland.  St.  Virgilius  of  Salzburg  in  the  eighth  century  taught 
the  sphericity  of  the  earth  and  the  existence  of  the  Antipodes. 
It  was  this  same  teaching  that  Copernicus  and  later  astrono- 
mers formulated  into  the  system  now  in  vogue. 

St  Columcille  himself  was  a  composer  of  Latin  hymns  and 
a  penman  of  no  mean  order,  as  the  Book  of  Kells,  if  written 
by  him,  sufficiently  proves.  In  all  the  monasteries  which  he 
founded,  provision  was  made  for  the  pursuit  of  sacred  learn- 
ing and  the  multiplication  of  books  by  transcription.  The 
students  of  his  schools  were  taught  classics,  mechanical  arts, 
law,  history,  and  physics.   They  improved  the  methods  of  hus- 


30 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


bandry  and  gardening;  supplied  the  people,  whom  they  helped 
to  civilize,  with  implements  of  labor ;  and  taught  them  the  use 
of  the  forge,  an  accomplishment  belonging  to  almost  every 
Irish  monk. 

The  writings  of  Adamnan,  who  spent  most  of  his  life  out- 
side his  native  land,  show  that  he  was  familiar  with  the  best 
Latin  authors,  and  had  a  knowledge  of  Greek  as  well.  His 
"Vita  S.  Columbae"  ("Life  of  St.  Columcille")  has  made  his 
name  immortal  as  a  Latin  writer.  His  book  "De  Locis  Sanc- 
tis" ("On  the  Holy  Places")  contains  information  he  received 
from  the  pilgrim  bishop  Arculfus,  who  had  been  driven  by  a 
tempest  to  take  refuge  with  the  monks  of  lona.  On  account 
of  the  importance  of  the  writings  of  Adamnan  and  because 
of  his  influence  in  secular  and  ecclesiastical  affairs  of  impor- 
tance, few  will  question  his  right  to  a  distinguished  place 
among  the  saintly  scholars  of  the  West. 

Irish  monks,  abroad  as  well  as  at  home,  were  pre-eminently 
students  and  exponents  of  Holy  Scripture.  Sedulius  wrote  a 
commentary  on  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul ;  John  Scotus  Erigena 
composed  a  work,  "De  Praedestinatione"  ("Concerning  Pre- 
destination") ;  Dungal  was  not  only  an  astronomer,  but  also  an 
excellent  theologian,  as  is  clear  from  his  defence  of  Catholic 
teaching  on  the  invocation  of  saints  and  the  veneration  of  their 
relics.  His  knowledge  of  Sacred  Scripture  and  of  the  Fathers 
is  exceedingly  remarkable. 

St.  Columbanus,  besides  other  works,  is  said  to  have  com- 
posed an  exposition  of  the  Psalms,  which  is  mentioned  in  the 
catalogue  of  St.  Gall's  library,  but  which  cannot  now  be 
identified  with  certainty.  The  writings  of  this  abbot  are  said 
to  have  brought  about  a  more  frequent  use  of  confession  both 
in  the  world  and  in  monasteries ;  and  his  legislation  regarding 
the  Blessed  Sacrament  fostered  eucharistic  devotion. 

Marianus  Scotus  is  the  author  of  a  commentary  on  the 
Psalms,  so  precious  that  rarely  was  it  allowed  to  pass  beyond 
the  walls  of  the  monastic  library.  His  commentary  on  St. 
Paul's  Epistles  is  regarded  as  his  most  famous  production. 
Herein  he  shows  acquaintance  with  Saints  Jerome,  Augustine, 
Gregory,  and  Leo,  with  Cassiodorus,  Origen,  Alcuin,  Cassian, 
and  Peter  the  Deacon.    He  completed  the  work  on  the  17th 


IRISH   MONKS  IN  EUROPE 


31 


May,  1079,  and  ends  the  volume  by  asking  the  reader  to  pray 
for  the  salvation  of  his  soul. 

TRANSCRIPTION :  In  all  the  monasteries  a  vast  number 
of  scribes  were  continually  employed  in  multiplying  copies  of 
the  Sacred  Scriptures.  These  masterpieces  of  calligraphy, 
written  by  Irish  hands,  have  been  scattered  throughout  the 
libraries  of  Europe,  and  many  fragments  remain  to  the  present 
day.  The  beauty  of  these  manuscripts  is  praised  by  all,  and 
the  names  of  the  best  transcribers  often  find  mention  in  monas- 
tic annals.  The  work  was  irksome,  but  it  was  looked  upon  as  a 
privilege  and  meritorious. 

It  remains  to  speak  of  that  glorious  monument  of  the  Irish 
monks,  the  abbey  of  St.  Gall,  in  Switzerland.  It  was  here 
that  Celtic  influence  was  most  felt  and  endured  the  longest. 
Within  its  walls  for  centuries  the  sacred  sciences  were  taught 
and  classic  authors  studied.  Many  of  its  monks  excelled  as 
musicians  and  poets,  while  others  were  noted  for  their  skill 
in  calligraphy  and  the  fine  arts.  The  library  was  only  in  its 
infancy  in  the  eighth  century,  but  gradually  it  grew,  and  even- 
tually became  one  of  the  largest  and  richest  in  the  world.  The 
brethren  were  in  correspondence  with  all  the  learned  houses 
of  France  and  Italy,  and  there  was  constant  mutual  inter- 
change of  books,  sacred  and  scientific,  between  them. 

They  manufactured  their  own  parchment  from  the  hides  of 
the  wild  beasts  that  roamed  in  the  forests  around  them,  and 
bound  their  books  in  boards  of  wood  clamped  with  iron  or 
ivory. 

Such  was  the  monastery  of  St.  Gall,  which  owes  its  incep- 
tion to  the  journey  through  Europe  of  the  great  Columbanus 
and  his  monk-companions — men  whose  lives,  according  to 
Bede,  procured  for  the  religious  habit  great  veneration,  so  that 
wherever  they  appeared  they  were  received  with  joy,  as  God's 
own  servants.  ''And  what  will  be  the  reward,"  asks  the 
biographer  of  Marianus  Scotus,  "of  these  pilgrim-monks  who 
left  the  sweet  soil  of  their  native  land,  its  mountains  and 
hills,  its  valleys  and  its  groves,  its  rivers  and  pure  fountains, 
and  went  like  the  children  of  Abraham  without  hesitation  into 
the  land  which  God  had  pointed  out  to  them  ?'*  He  answers 
thus:  "They  will  dwell  in  the  house  of  the  Lord  with  the 


32 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


angels  and  archangels  of  God  forever;  they  will  behold  the 
God  of  gods  in  Sion,  to  whom  be  honor  and  glory  for  ever  and 
ever." 

References  : 

Lanigan:  Ecclesiastical  History  of  Ireland  (Dublin,  1829); 
Montalembert :  Monks  of  the  West  (Edinburgh,  1861);  Moran: 
Irish  Saints  in  Great  Britain  (Dublin,  1903)  ;  Dalgairns:  Apostles 
of  Europe  (London,  1S76)  ;  Healy:  Ireland's  Ancient  Schools  and 
Scholars  (Dublin,  1S90)  ;  Barrett:  A  Calendar  of  Scottish  Saints 
(Fort  Augustus,  1904)  ;  Stokes:  Six  Months  in  the  Apennines  (Lon- 
don, 1892),  Three  Months  in  the  Forests  of  France  (London,  1895)  ; 
Fowler:  Vita  S.  Columbce  (Oxford,  1894)  ;  Wattenbach:  Articles  in 
Ulster  Journal  of  Archreology,  vol.  7  (Belfast,  1859)  ;  Gougaud:  Les 
Chretientes  celtiques  (Paris,  1911);  Hogan :  Articles  in  Irish  Ec- 
clesiastical Record,  1894,  1895 ;  Drane :  Christian  Schools  and  Schol- 
ars (London,  1881). 


THE  IRISH  AND  THE  SEA 


By  William  H.  Babcock,  LL.B. 

THE  beginning  of  Irish  navigation,  like  the  beginning  of 
everything  else,  is  hidden  in  the  mist  of  antiquity.  Ves- 
sels of  some  kind  obviously  must  have  borne  the  successive 
waves  of  immigrants  or  invaders  to  the  island.  Naturally  they 
would  remain  in  use  afterwards  for  trade,  travel,  exploration, 
and  war.  Irish  ships  may  have  been  among  those  of  the 
Breton  fleet  that  Caesar  dispersed  at  Vannes  after  an  obstinate 
struggle.  Two  or  three  centuries  later  we  find  Niall  of  the 
Nine  Hostages  making  nautical  descents  on  the  neighboring 
shores,  especially  Britain:  and  there  is  every  probability  that 
ships  of  the  island  conveyed  some  at  least  of  the  "Scots" 
(Irish)  whom  Gildas  in  the  sixth  century  describes  as  joining 
the  Picts  in  furiously  storming  the  Roman  wall. 

The  equally  adventurous  but  more  pacific  work  of  explora- 
tion went  on  also,  if  we  may  judge  by  that  extraordinary  series 
of  Irish  sea-sagas,  the  Imrama,  comprising  the  Voyages  of 
Bran,  Maelduin,  the  Hui  Corra,  and  St.  Brendan — the  last- 
mentioned  deservedly  the  most  famous.  These  vary  in  their 
literary  merits  and  in  the  merits  of  their  several  parts,  for  they 
have  been  successively  rewritten  at  dififerent  periods,  receiving 
always  something  of  the  color,  belief,  and  adornment  which  b€- 
longed  to  the  writer's  time ;  but  under  all  may  be  dimly  traced, 
as  in  a  palimpsest,  the  remote  pagan  original.  At  their  best 
they  embody  a  lofty  and  touching  poetry  very  subtle  and  sig- 
nificant, as  when  we  read  of  Bran's  summoning  by  a  visitant 
of  supernatural  beauty  to  the  isles  of  undying  delight,  where  a 
thousand  years  are  but  as  a  day;  his  return  with  a  companion 
who  had  been  overcome  by  longing  for  Ireland  and  home ;  the 
man's  falling  to  ashes  at  the  first  touch  of  the  native  soil,  as 
though  he  had  been  long  dead ;  and  the  flight  of  Bran  and  his 
crew  from  the  real  living  world  to  the  islands  of  the  blessed, 
^t  least  equally  fine  and  stirring  is  St.  Brendan's  interview  with 
the  exiled  spirit  of  Heaven,  whose  "sin  was  but  little",  so  that 
he  and  his  fellows  were  given  only  the  pleasing  penance  of  sing- 
ing delightfully,  in  the  guise  of  beautiful  birds,  the  praises  of 


34  TH£  GLORIAS  OF  IRELAND 

the  God  who  showed  them  mercy  and  grace,  amid  the  charms 
of  an  earthly  paradise.  "Then  all  the  birds  sang  evensong,  so 
that  it  was  an  heavenly  noise  to  hear." 

It  is  not  very  surprising  that  St.  Brendan's  legend,  with  such 
qualities  in  prose  and  verse,  made  itself  at  home  in  many 
lands  and  languages,  and  became  for  centuries  a  widespread 
popular  favorite  and  matter  of  general  belief,  also  influencing 
the  most  permanent  literature  of  a  high  contemplative  cast, 
which  we  might  suppose  to  be  out  of  touch  with  it  altogether. 
Certain  of  its  more  unusual  incidents  are  found  even  in  Arab 
writings  of  romance  founded  on  fact,  as  in  Edrisi's  narrative 
of  the  Magrurin  explorers  of  Lisbon  and  the  adventures  of 
Sinbad  related  in  the  Arabian  Nights;  but  perhaps  here  we 
have  a  case  of  reciprocal  borrowing  such  as  may  well  occur 
when  ships'  companies  of  different  nations  meet. 

The  most  conspicuous,  insistent,  and  repeated  feature  of 
all  these  Imrama  is  a  belief  in  Atlantic  islands  fair  enough 
or  wonderful  enough  to  tempt  the  shore  dwellers  of  Ire- 
land far  away  and  hold  them  spell-bound  for  years.  It  is 
easy  to  ascribe  these  pictures  to  sunset  on  the  ocean,  or  the 
wonders  of  mirage;  but  all  the  time,  within  long  sailing  dis- 
tance, there  actually  were  islands  of  delightful  climate  and 
exceeding  beauty.  These  had  been  occasionally  reached  from 
the  Mediterranean  ever  since  early  Carthaginian  times,  as 
classical  authors  seem  to  tell  us;  why  not  also  from  Ireland, 
perhaps  not  quite  so  distant?  It  is  undoubted  that  the 
Canary  Islands  were  never  really  altogether  forgotten,  and  the 
same  is  probably  true  of  the  Madeiras  and  all  three  groups  of 
Azores,  though  the  knowledge  that  lingered  in  Ireland  was  a 
distorted  glimmering  tradition  of  old  voyages,  occasionally 
inciting  to  new  ventures  in  the  same  field. 

Some  have  supposed,  though  without  sufficient  evidence,  that 
Saint  Brendan  even  made  his  way  to  America,  and  parts  of  that 
shore  line  in  several  different  latitudes  have  been  selected  as 
the  scene  of  the  exploit.  His  first  entry  into  serious  geography 
is  in  the  fine  maps  of  Dulcert,  1339,  and  the  Pizigani,  1367, 
both  of  which  plainly  label  Madeira,  Porto  Santo,  and  Las 
Desertas— "The  Fortunate  Islands  of  St.  Brandan."  That 
there  may  be  no  possibility  of  misunderstanding,  the  Pizigani 


THE  IRISH  AND  THE  SEA 


35 


brothers  present  a  full-length  portrait  of  the  holy  navigator 
himself  bending  over  these  islands  with  hands  of  benediction. 
The  inscription,  though  not  the  picture,  was  common,  thus 
applied,  on  the  maps  of  the  next  century  or  two,  and  no  other 
interpretation  of  his  voyage  found  any  place  until  a  later  time. 

Of  course  the  fourteenth  century  was  a  long  way  from  the 
sixth,  when  the  voyage  was  supposed  to  have  been  made,  and 
we  cannot  take  so  late  a  verdict  as  convincing  proof  of  any 
fact.  But  it  at  least  exhibits  the  current  interpretation  of  the 
written  narrative  among  geographers  and  mariners,  the  people 
best  able  to  judge ;  and  here  the  interval  was  much  less.  The 
story  itself  seems  to  corroborate  them  in  a  general  way,  if  read 
naturally.  One  would  say  that  it  tells  of  a  voyage  to  the 
Canaries,  of  which  one  is  unmistakably  "the  island  under 
Mount  Atlas",  and  that  this  was  undertaken  by  way  of  the 
Azores  and  Madeira,  with  inevitable  experience  of  great  beauty 
in  some  islands  and  volcanic  terrors  in  others.  Madeira  may 
well  have  been  pitched  upon  by  the  interpreters  as  the  suit- 
able scene  of  a  particularly  long  tarrying  by  the  way.  Of 
course  magic  filled  out  all  gaps  of  real  knowledge,  and  wonders 
grew  with  each  new  rewriting. 

Whatever  Brendan  did,  there  is  no  doubt  that  Irish  mariner- 
monks,  incited  by  the  great  awakening  which  followed  St. 
Patrick's  mission,  covered  many  seas  in  their  frail  vessels 
during  the  next  three  or  four  centuries.  They  set  up  a 
flourishing  religious  establishment  in  Orkney,  made  stepping 
stones  of  the  intervening  islands,  and  reached  Iceland  some 
time  in  the  eighth  century,  if  not  earlier.  The  Norsemen,  fol- 
lowing in  their  tracks  as  always,  found  them  there,  and  the 
earliest  Icelandic  writings  record  their  departure,  leaving  be- 
hind them  books,  bells,  and  other  souvenirs  on  an  islet  off 
shore  which  still  bears  their  name. 

Did  they  keep  before  the  Norsemen  to  America  too?  At 
least  the  Norsemen  thought  so.  For  centuries  the  name  Great 
Ireland  or  Whitemen's  Land  was  accepted  in  Norse  geography 
as  meaning  a  region  far  west  of  Ireland,  a  parallel  to  Great 
Sweden  (Russia),  which  lay  far  east  of  Sweden.  The  saga  of 
Thorfinn  Karlsefni,  first  to  attempt  colonizing  America,  makes 
it  plain  that  his  followers  believed  Great  Ireland  to  be  some- 


(4) 


36 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


where  in  that  region,  and  it  is  explicitly  located  near  Wineland 
by  the  twelfth  century  Landnamabok.  Also  there  were  spe- 
cific tales  afloat  of  a  distinguished  Icelander  lost  at  sea,  who 
was  afterward  found  in  a  western  region  by  an  Irish  vessel 
long  driven  before  the  storm.  The  version  most  relied  on  came 
through  one  Rafn,  who  had  dwelt  in  Limerick;  also  through 
Thorfinn,  earl  of  the  Orkneys. 

Brazil,  the  old  Irish  Breasail,  was  another  name  for  land 
west  of  Ireland — where  there  is  none  short  of  America — on 
very  many  medieval  maps,  of  which  perhaps  a  dozen  are 
older  than  the  year  1400,  the  earliest  yet  found  being  that  of 
Dalorto,  1325.  Usually  it  appears  as  a  nearly  circular  disc 
of  land  opposite  Munster,  at  first  altogether  too  near  the  Irish 
coast,  as  indeed  the  perfectly  well-known  Cor\-o  w^as  drawn 
much  too  near  the  coast  of  Spain,  or  as  even  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  when  Newfoundland  had  been  repeatedly  visited,  that 
island  was  shifted  by  divers  mapmakers  eastward  towards  Ire- 
land, almost  to  the  conventional  station  of  Brazil.  Also,  not 
long  afterwards,  the  maps  of  Nicolay  and  Zaltieri  adopted  the 
reverse  treatment  of  transferring  Brazil  to  Newfoundland 
waters,  as  if  recognizing  past  error  and  restoring  its  proper 
place. 

The  name  Brazil  appears  not  to  have  been  adopted  by  the 
Norsemen,  but  there  is  one  fifteenth  century  map,  perhaps  of 
1480,  preserved  in  Milan,  which  shows  this  large  disc-form 
''Brazil"  just  below  Greenland  ("Ilia  Verde"),  in  such  relation 
that  the  mapmaker  really  must  have  known  of  Labrador 
under  the  former  name  and  believed  that  it  could  be  readily 
reached  from  that  Norse  colony. 

It  seems  altogether  likely  that  "Brazil"  was  applied  to  the 
entire  outjutting  region  of  America  surrounding  the  Gulf  of 
St.  Lawrence — that  part  of  this  continent  which  is  by  far  the 
nearest  Ireland.  Besides  the  facts  above  stated,  certain  coin- 
cidences of  real  geography  and  of  these  old  maps  favor  that 
belief,  and  they  are  quite  unlikely  to  have  been  guessed  or 
invented.  Thus  certain  maps,  beginning  with  1375,  while  keep- 
ing the  circular  external  outline  of  Ireland,  reduce  the  land 
area  to  a  mere  ring,  enclosing  an  expanse  of  water  dotted 
with  islands ;  and  certain  other  maps  show  it  still  nearly  cir- 


THE  IRISH  AND  THE  SEA 


37 


cular  externally,  and  solid,  but  divided  into  two  parts  by  a 
curved  channel  nearly  from  north  to  south.  The  former  ex- 
position is  possible  enough  to  one  more  concerned  with  the 
nearly  enclosed  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  and  its  islands  than  with 
its  two  comparatively  narrow  outlets ;  the  second  was  after- 
ward repeated  approximately  by  Gastoldi's  map  illustrating 
Ramusio  when  he  was  somehow  moved  to  minimize  the  width 
of  the  Gulf,  though  well  remembering  the  straits  of  Belle  Isle 
and  Cabot.  There  are  some  other  coincidences,  but  it  is  un- 
necessary to  dwell  on  them.  Land  west  of  Ireland  must  be 
either  pure  fancy  or  the  very  region  in  question,  and  it  is 
hardly  believable  that  fancy  could  guess  so  accurately  as  to 
two  different  interpretations  of  real  though  unusual  geography 
and  give  them  right  latitude,  with  such  an  old  Irish  name 
(Brazil)  as  might  naturally  have  been  conferred  in  the  early 
voyaging  times.  That  an  extensive  region,  chiefly  mainland, 
should  be  represented  as  an  island  is  no  objection,  as  anyone 
will  see  by  examining  the  maps  which  break  up  everything 
north  of  South  America  in  the  years  next  following  the 
achievements  of  Columbus  and  Cabot.  There  was  a  natural 
tendency  to  expect  nothing  but  islands  short  of  Asia. 

It  seems  likely,  therefore,  that  America  was  actually  reached 
by  the  Irish  even  before  the  Norsemen  and  certainly  long 
before  all  other  Europeans. 

Refeeences  : 

Babcock:  Early  Norse  Visits  to  North  America,  Smithsonian  Pub- 
lication 2138  (1913);  Baring-Gould:  Curious  Myths  of  the  Middle 
Ages;  Beauvois:  The  Discovery  of  the  New  World  by  the  Irish; 
Cantwell :  Pre-Columbian  Discoveries  of  America ;  Daly :  The  Legend 
of  St.  Brandan,  Celtic  Review,  vol.  I,  A  Sequel  to  the  Voyage  of  St. 
Brandan,  Celtic  Review,  Jan.  13,  1909;  Hardiman:  The  History  of 
Galway;  Hull:  Irish  Episodes  of  Icelandic  History;  Joyce:  The 
Voyage  of  Maelduin ;  Nutt :  The  Voyage  of  Bran ;  Stokes  :  The  Voyage 
of  Maelduin  {Revue  Celtique,  vol.  9),  Voyage  of  Snedgus  (Revue 
Celtique,  vol.  9),  Voyage  of  the  Hui  Corra  {Revue  Celtique,  vol.  14)  ; 
Moran:  Brendaniana. 


IRISH  LOVE  OF  LEARNING 


By  Rev.  P.  S.  Dinneen,  M.  A.,  R.  U.  I. 

<  ^npHE  distin^ishing  property  of  man,"  says  Cicero,  "is  to 
search  for  and  follow  after  truth.  Therefore,  when 
disengaged  from  our  necessary  cares  and  concerns,  we  desire 
to  see,  to  hear,  and  to  learn,  and  we  esteem  knowledge  of 
things  obscure  or  wonderful  as  indispensable  to  our  happi- 
ness."   (De  Officiis  I.,  4). 

I  claim  for  the  Irish  race  that  throughout  their  history  they 
have  cut  down  their  bodily  necessities  to  the  quick,  in  order  to 
devote  time  and  energy  to  the  pursuit  of  knowledge ;  that  they 
have  engaged  in  intellectual  pursuits,  not  infrequently  of  a 
high  order,  on  a  low  basis  of  material  comfort ;  that  they  have 
persevered  in  the  quest  of  learning  under  unparalleled  hard- 
ships and  difficulties,  even  in  the  dark  night  of  "a  nation's 
eclipse",  when  a  school  was  an  unlawful  assembly  and  school- 
teaching  a  crime.  I  claim,  moreover,  that,  when  circumstances 
were  favorable,  no  people  have  shown  a;  more  adventurous 
spirit  or  a  more  chivalrous  devotion  in  the  advancement  and 
spread  of  learning.!! 

Love  of  learning  implies  more  than  a  natural  aptitude  for 
acquiring  information.  It  connotes  a  zest  for  knowledge  that 
is  recondite  and  attainable  only  at  the  expense  of  ease,  of 
leisure,  of  the  comforts  and  luxuries  of  Hfe,  and  a  zeal  for 
the  cultivation  of  the  mental  faculties.  It  is  of  the  soul  and 
not  of  the  body;  it  refines,  elevates,  adorns.  It  is  allied  to 
sensibility,  to  keenness  of  vision,  to  the  close  observation  of 
mental  phenomena.  Its  possessor  becomes  a  citizen  of  the 
known  world.  His  mind  broadens;  he  compares,  contrasts, 
conciliates ;  he  brings  together  the  new  and  the  old,  the  near 
and  the  distant,  the  permanent  and  the  transitory,  and  weaves 
from  them  all  the  web  of  systematized  human  thought. 

I  am  not  here  concerned  with  the  extent  of  Ireland's  con- 
tribution to  the  sum  of  human  learning,  nor  with  the  career  of 
her  greatest  scholars ;  I  am  merely  describing  the  love  of  learn- 
ing which  is  characteristic  of  the  race,  and  which  it  seems  best 
to  present  in  a  brief  study  of  distinct  types  drawn  from 
various  periods  of  Irish  history. 


IRISH  I.OVE  01''  LEARNING 


39 


In  the  pre-Christian  period  the  Druid  was  the  chief  repre- 
sentative of  the  learning  of  the  race.  He  was  the  adviser  of 
kings  and  princes,  and  the  instructor  of  their  children.  His 
knowledge  was  of  the  recondite  order  and  beyond  the  reach  of 
ordinary  persons.  The  esteem  in  which  he  was  held  by  all 
classes  of  the  people  proves  their  love  for  the  learning  for 
which  he  stood. 

Patrick  came :  and  with  him  came  a  wider  horizon  of  learn- 
ing and  greater  facilities  for  the  acquisition  and  diffusion  of 
knowledge.  Monastic  schools  sprang  up  in  all  directions — at 
Clonard,  Armagh,  Clonmacnois,  Bangor,  Lismore,  Kildare, 
Innisfallen.  These  schools  were  celebrated  throughout 
Europe  in  the  earlier  middle  ages,  and  from  the  fifth  to  the 
ninth  century  Ireland  led  the  nations  of  Europe  in  learning 
and  deserved  the  title  of  the  "Island  of  Saints  and  Scholars." 
Our  type  is  the  student  in  one  of  these  monastic  schools.  He 
goes  out  from  his  parents  and  settles  down  to  study  in  the 
environs  of  the  monastery.  He  is  not  rich;  he  resides  in  a 
hut;  his  time  is  divided  between  study,  prayer,  and  manual 
labor.  He  becomes  a  monk,  only  to  increase  in  devotion  to 
learning  and  to  accentuate  his  privations.  He  copies  and  illu- 
minates manuscripts.  He  memorizes  the  Psalms.  He  glosses 
the  Vulgate  Scriptures  with  vernacular  notes.  He  receives 
ordination,  and,  realizing  that  there  are  benighted  countries 
ten  times  as  large  as  his  native  land  beyond  the  seas,  and, 
burning  with  zeal  for  the  spread  of  the  Gospel  and  the  ad- 
vancement of  learning,  sails  for  Britain,  or  passes  into  Gaul, 
or  reaches  the  slopes  of  the  Apennines,  or  the  outskirts  of  the 
Black  Forest.  The  rest  of  his  life  is  devoted  to  the  foundation 
of  monasteries  to  which  schools  are  attached,  to  the  building 
of  churches,  and  ta  the  diffusion  around  him  of  every  known 
branch  of  knowledge.  He  may  have  taken  books  from  Ire- 
land over  seas,  and,  of  these,  relics  are  now  to  be  found  among 
the  treasures  of  the  ancient  libraries  of  Europe.  Columcille, 
Columbanus,  Adamnan,  Gall,  Virgilius  occur  to  the  mind  in 
dwelling  on  this  type. 

The  hereditary  seanchaidhe,  who  treasured  up  the  tradi- 
tional lore  of  the  clan  and  its  chief,  was  held  in  high  honor  and 
enjoyed  extraordinary  privileges.    He  held  a  freehold.  He 


40 


the;  glories  of  Ireland 


was  high  in  the  graces  of  the  chief,  and  officiated  at  his  inaugu- 
ration. 

An  important  type  is  the  Irish  ecclesiastical  student  abroad 
in  the  penal  days.  School  teaching,  unless  at  the  sacrifice  of 
Faith,  was  a  crime  in  Ireland,  and  the  training  required  for  the 
priesthood  had  to  be  obtained  on  the  continent.  The  Irish  out 
of  their  poverty  established  colleges  in  Rome  (1628),  Sala- 
manca (1593),  Seville  (1612),  Alcala  (1590),  Lisbon  (1593), 
Louvain  (1624),  Antwerp  (1629),  Douai  (1577),  Lille  (1610), 
Bordeaux  (1603),  Toulouse  (1659),  Paris  (1605),  and  else- 
where. As  late  as  1795  these  colleges  contained  478  students, 
and  some  of  them  are  still  in  existence.  The  young  student  in 
going  abroad  risked  everything.  He  often  returned  watched  by 
spies,  with  his  life  in  danger.  Yet  the  supply  never  failed;  the 
colleges  flourished;  and  those  who  returned  diffused  around 
them  not  only  learning  but  the  urbanity  and  refinement  which 
were  a  striking  fruit  and  mark  of  their  studies  abroad. 

Another  type  is  the  Irish  scribe.  In  the  days  of  Ireland's 
fame  and  prosperity  and  of  the  flood-tide  of  her  native  lan- 
guage, he  was  a  skilled  craftsman,  and  the  extant  specimens  of 
his  work  are  unsurpassed  of  their  kind.  But  I  prefer  to  look 
at  him  at  a  later  period,  when  he  became  our  sole  substitute 
for  the  printer  and  when  his  diligence  preserved  for  us  all  that 
remains  of  a  fading  literature.  He  was  miserably  poor.  He 
toiled  through  the  day  at  the  spade  or  the  plough,  or  guided 
the  shuttle  through  the  loom.  At  night,  by  the  flare  of  the 
turf-fire  or  the  fitful  light  of  a  splinter  of  bogwood,  he  made 
his  copy  of  poem  or  tract  or  tale,  which  but  for  him  would 
have  perished.  The  copies  are  often  ill-spelt  and  ill-written, 
but  with  all  their  faults  they  are  as  noble  a  monument  to 
national  love  of  learning  as  any  nation  can  boast  of. 

In  our  gallery  of  types  we  must  not  forget  the  character 
whom  English  writers  contemptuously  called  the  **hedge- 
schoolmaster."  The  hedge-school  in  its  most  elemental  state 
was  an  open-air  daily  assemblage  of  youths  in  pursuit  of 
knowledge.  Inasmuch  as  the  law  had  refused  learning  a 
fitting  temple  in  which  to  abide  and  be  honored,  she  was  led 
by  her  votaries  into  the  open,  and  there,  beside  the  fragrant 
hedge,  if  you  will,  with  the  green  sward  for  benches,  and  the 


IRISH  I.OVE  01^  LEARNING 


41 


canopy  of  heaven  for  dome,  she  was  honored  in  Ireland,  even 
as  she  had  been  honored  ages  before  in  Greece,  in  Palestine, 
and  by  our  primordial  Celtic  ancestors  themselves.  The  hedge- 
schoolmaster  conducted  the  rites,  and  the  air  resounded  with 
the  sonorous  hexameters  of  Virgil  and  the  musical  odes  of 
Horace. 

In  the  Irish-speaking  portions  of  the  country  the  hedge- 
schoolmaster  was  often  also  a  poet  who  wrote  mellifluous 
songs  in  Irish,  which  were  sung  throughout  the  entire  district, 
and  sometimes  earned  him  enduring  fame.  Eoghan  Ruadh 
O'Sullivan  and  Andrew  MacGrath,  called  An  Mangaire  Sugach 
or  "the  Jolly  Pedlar,"  are  well-known  instances  of  this  type. 

The  poor  scholar  is  another  type  that  under  varying  forms 
and  under  various  circumstances  has  ever  trod  the  stage  of 
Irish  history.  From  an  ancient  Irish  manuscript  (See  O'Curry, 
Manners  and  Customs,  II,  79,  80)  we  learn  that  Adamnan,  the 
biographer  of  St.  Columcille,  and  some  other  youths  studied 
at  Clonard  and  were  supported  by  the  neighborhood.  The 
poor  scholar  more  than  any  other  type  embodies  the  love  of 
learning  of  the  Irish  race.  In  the  schools  which  preceded  the 
National,  he  appeared  in  a  most  interesting  stage  of  develop- 
ment. He  came  from  a  distance,  attracted  by  the  reputation 
of  a  good  teacher  and  the  regularity  of  a  well-conducted  school. 
He  came,  avowedly  poor.  His  only  claim  on  the  generosity 
of  his  teacher  and  of  the  public  was  a  marked  aptitude  for 
learning  and  an  ardent  desire  for  study  and  cultivation  of 
mind.  He  did  not  look  for  luxuries.  He  was  satisfied,  if  his 
bodily  wants  were  reasonably  supplied,  even  with  the  incon- 
veniences of  frequent  change  of  abode.  A  welcome  was  ex- 
tended to  him  on  all  sides.  His  hosts  and  patrons  honored 
his  thirst  for  knowledge  and  tenacity  of  purpose.  He  was 
expected  to  help  the  students  in  the  house  where  he  found 
entertainment,  and  it  may  not  have  been  unpleasing  to  him  on 
occasion  to  display  his  talents  before  his  host.  When  school 
was  over,  it  was  not  unusual  to  find  him  surrounded  by  a 
group  of  school-companions,  each  pressing  his  claim  to  enter- 
tain him  for  the  night. 

Despite  the  hospitality  of  his  patrons,  the  poor  scholar  often 
felt  the  bitterness  of  his  dependent  state,  but  he  bore  it  with 


42 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


equanimity,  his  hand  ever  eagerly  stretched  out  for  the  prize 
of  learning.  What  did  learning  bring  him?  Why  was  he  so 
eager  to  bear  for  its  sake 

"all  the  thousand  aches 
That  patient  merit  of  the  unworthy  takes"? 

Sometimes  he  became  a  priest;  sometimes  his  life  was  pur- 
poseless and  void.  But  he  was  ever  urged  onward  by  the  fas- 
cination of  learning  and  of  the  cultivation  of  the  nobler  part 
of  his  nature. 

As  might  have  been  expected,  the  Irish  who  have  emigrated 
to  the  American  and  Australian  continents  have  given  touch- 
ing proof  of  their  devotion  to  the  cause  of  learning.  I  have 
space  only  for  a  few  pathetic  examples. 

An  Irish  workman  in  the  United  States,  seeing  my  name  in 
connection  with  an  Irish  Dictionary,  wrote  to  me  a  few  years 
ago  to  ask  how  he  might  procure  one,  as,  he  said,  an  Italian  in 
the  works  had  asked  him  the  meaning  of  Erin  go  bragh,  and 
he  felt  ashamed  to  be  unable  to  explain  it. 

A  man  who,  at  the  age  of  three,  had  emigrated  from  Clare 
in  the  famine  time,  wrote  to  me  recently  from  Australia  in 
the  Irish  language  and  character. 

An  old  man  named  John  O'Regan  of  New  Zealand,  who 
had  been  twelve  years  in  exile  in  the  United  States  and  forty- 
eight  on  the  Australian  continent,  with  failing  eyesight,  in  a 
letter  that  took  him  from  January  to  June  of  the  year  1906  to 
write,  endeavored  to  set  down  scraps  of  Irish  lore  which  he 
had  carried  with  him  from  the  old  country  and  which  had 
clung  to  his  memory  to  the  last. 

"In  my  digging  life  in  the  quarries,"  he  says,  "books  were 
not  a  part  of  our  swag  (prayerbook  excepted).  In  1871,  when 
I  had  a  long  seat  of  work  before  me,  I  sent  for  McCurtin's 
Dictionary  to  Melbourne.  It  is  old  and  wanting  in  the  intro- 
ductory part,  but  for  all  was  splendid  and  I  loved  it  as  my 
life."   (See  Gaelic  Journal,  Dec,  1906.) 

References  : 

Joyce:  A  Social  History  of  Ancient  Ireland  (2  vols.,  2d  ed.,  Dublin, 
1913);  Healy:  Ireland's  Ancient  Schools  and   Scholars  (Dublin, 


IRISH  tOVE  OP  LJJARNING 


43 


1890),  Maynooth  College  Centenary  History  (Dublin,  1895)  ; 
O'Curry:  Manners  and  Customs  of  the  Ancient  Irish,  (3  vols.,  Dub- 
lin and  London,  1873),  Manuscript  Materials  of  Irish  History,  re- 
issue (Dublin,  1873);  Carleton :  Traits  and  Stories  of  the  Irish 
Peasantry,  especially  vol.  3,  The  Poor  Scholar;  Montalembert :  The 
Monks  of  the  West,  authorized  translation,  (7  vols.,  London,  1861)  ; 
Meyer:  Learning  in  Ireland  in  the  Fifth  Century  (Dublin,  1913); 
Dinneen:  Poems  of  Eoghan  Ruadh  O'Sullivan,  Introduction  (Dub- 
lin, 1902),  The  Maigue  Poets,  Introduction  (Dublin,  1900);  Boyle: 
The  Irish  College  In  Paris  1578-1901,  with  a  brief  sketch  of  the 
other  Irish  Colleges  in  France  (Dublin,  1901)  ;  Irish  Ecclesiastical 
Record,  new  series,  vol.  VIII,  307,  465  ;  3rd  series,  vol.  VII,  350, 
437,  641. 


IRISH  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 


By  Sir  Bertram  C.  A.  WindlE,  Sc.D.,  M.D., 
President,  University  College,  Cork. 

WE  may  divide  our  survey  of  the  debt  owed  to  Ireland  by 
science  into  three  periods :  the  earliest,  the  interme- 
diate, and  the  latest. 

In  the  earliest  period  the  names  which  come  before  us  are 
chiefly  those  of  compilers  such  as  Augustin,  a  monk  and  an 
Irishman  who  wrote  at  Carthage,  in  Africa,  in  the  seventh 
century,  a  Latin  treatise  on  The  Wonderful  Things  of  the 
Sacred  Scripture,  still  extant,  in  which,  in  connection  with 
Joshua's  miracle,  a  very  full  account  of  the  astronomical 
knowledge  of  the  period,  Ptolemaic,  but  in  many  ways  remark- 
ably accurate,  is  given.  There  are,  however,  three  distinguished 
names.  Virgil  the  Geometer,  i.  e.,  Fergil  (O'Farrell),  was 
Abbot  of  Aghaboe,  went  to  the  continent  in  741,  and  was  after- 
wards Bishop  of  Salzburg.  He  died  in  785.  He  is  remem- 
bered by  his  controversies  with  St.  Boniface,  one  of  which  is 
concerned  with  the  question  of  the  Antipodes.  Virgil  is  sup- 
posed to  have  been  the  first  to  teach  that  the  earth  is  spherical. 
So  celebrated  was  he  that  it  has  been  thought  that  a  part  of 
the  favor  in  which  the  author  of  the  Aeneid  was  held  by 
medieval  churchmen  was  due  to  a  confusion  between  his  name 
and  that  of  the  geometer,  sometimes  spoken  of  as  St.  Virgil. 

Dicuil,  also  an  Irish  monk,  was  the  author  of  a  remarkable 
work  on  geography,  De  Mensura  Provinciarmn  Orhis  Terrae, 
which  was  written  in  825,  and  contains  interesting  references 
to  Iceland  and  especially  to  the  navigable  canal  w'hich  once 
connected  the  Nile  with  the  Red  Sea.  He  wrote  between  814 
and  816  a  work  on  astronomy  which  has  never  been  published. 
It  is  probable,  but  not  certain,  that  he  belonged  to  Clonmacnois. 

Dungal,  like  the  two  others  named  above,  was  an  astronomer. 
He  probably  belonged  to  Bangor,  and  left  his  native  land  early 
in  the  ninth  century.  In  811  he  wrote  a  remarkable  work, 
Dungali  Reclusi  Epistola  de  duplici  solis  eclipsi  anno  8io  ad 
Carolum  Magnum.  This  letter,  which  is  still  extant,  was 
written  at  the  request  of  Charlemagne,  who  considered  its 


IRISH  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 


45 


author  to  be  the  most  learned  astronomer  in  existence  and 
most  Hkely  to  clear  up  the  problem  submitted  to  him. 

Before  passing  to  the  next  period,  a  word  should  be  said  as 
to  the  medieval  physicians,  often  if  not  usually  belonging  to 
families  of  medical  men,  such  as  the  Leahys  and  O'Hickeys, 
and  attached  hereditarily  to  the  greater  clans.  These  men 
were  chiefly  compilers,  but  such  works  of  theirs  as  we  have 
throw  light  upon  the  state  of  medical  knowledge  in  their  day. 
Thus  there  is  extant  a  treatise  on  Materia  Medica  (1459)* 
written  by  Cormac  MacDuinntsleibhe  (Dunleavy),  hereditary 
physician  to  the  clan  of  O'Donnell  in  Ulster.  A  more  interest- 
ing work  is  the  Cursus  Medicus,  consisting  of  six  books  on 
Physiology,  three  on  Pathology,  and  four  on  Semeiotica, 
written  in  the  reign  of  Charles  I.  of  England  by  Nial  O'Glacan, 
born  in  Donegal,  and  at  one  time  physician  to  the  king  of 
France. 

O'Glacan's  name  introduces  us  to  the  middle  period,  if 
indeed  it  does  not  belong  there.  Inter  arma  silent  leges,  and 
it  may  be  added,  scientific  work.  The  troublous  state  of  Ireland 
for  many  long  years  fully  explains  the  absence  of  men  of 
science  in  any  abundance  until  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury. Still  there  are  three  names  which  can  never  be  forgotten, 
belonging  to  the  period  in  question.  Sir  Hans  Sloane  was 
born  at  Killileagh,  in  Ulster,  in  1660.  He  studied  medicine 
abroad,  went  to  London  where  he  settled,  and  was  made  a 
Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society.  He  published  a  work  on  the 
West  Indies,  but  his  claim  to  undying  memory  is  the  fact  that 
it  was  the  bequest  of  his  most  valuable  and  extensive  collec- 
tions to  the  nation  which  was  the  beginning  and  foundation  of 
the  British  Museum,  perhaps  the  most  celebrated  institution 
of  its  kind  in  the  world.  Sloane's  collection,  it  should  be  added, 
contained  an  immense  number  of  valuable  books  and  manu- 
scripts, as  well  as  of  objects  more  usually  associated  with  the 
idea  of  a  museum.   He  died  in  1753. 

The  Hon.  Robert  Boyle  was  born  at  Lismore,  in  the  county 
Waterford,  in  1627,  being  the  fourteenth  child  of  the  first 
Earl  of  Cork.  On  his  tombstone  he  is  described  as  "The 
Father  of  Chemistry  and  the  Uncle  of  the  Earl  of  Cork",  and, 
indeed,  in  his  Skyptical  Chimist  (1661),  he  assailed,  and  for 


4G 


THE  GLORIES  O^'  IRELAND 


the  time  overthrew,  the  idea  of  the  alchemists  that  there  was  a 
materia  prima,  asserting  as  he  did  that  theory  of  chemical 
"elements"  which  held  good  until  the  discoveries  in  connec- 
tion with  radium  led  to  a  modification  in  chemical  teaching! 
This  may  be  said  of  Boyle,  that  his  writings  profoundly  modi- 
fied scientific  opinion,  and  his  name  will  always  stand  in  the 
forefront  amongst  those  of  chemists.  He  made  important 
improvements  in  the  air-pump,  was  one  of  the  earliest  Fellows 
of  the  Royal  Society,  and  founded  the  "Boyle  Lectures."  He 
died  in  1691. 

Sir  Thomas  Molyneux  was  bom  in  Dublin,  in  1661,  of  a 
family  which  had  settled  in  Ireland  about  1560-70.  He  prac- 
tised as  a  physician  in  his  native  city,  was  the  first  person  to 
describe  the  Irish  Elk  and  to  demonstrate  the  fact  that  the 
Giant's  Causeway  was  a  natural  and  not,  as  had  been  pre- 
viously supposed,  an  artificial  production.  He  was  the  author 
of  many  other  scientific  observations.    He  died  in  1733. 

We  may  now  turn  to  more  recent  times,  and  it  will  be  con- 
venient to  divide  our  subjects  according  to  the  branch  of 
science  in  which  they  were  distinguished,  and  to  commence 
with 

Mathematicians, 

of  whom  Ireland  may  boast  of  a  most  distinguished  galaxy. 

Sir  William  Rowan  Hamilton  (b.  in  Dublin  1805,  d.  1865), 
belonged  to  a  family,  long  settled  in  Ireland,  but  of  Scottish 
extraction.  He  was  a  most  precocious  child.  He  read  Hebrew 
at  the  age  of  seven,  and  at  twelve,  had  studied  Latin,  Greek, 
and  four  leading  continental  languages,  as  well  as  Persian, 
Syriac,  Arabic,  Sanscrit,  and  other  tongues.  In  1819  he  wrote 
a  letter  to  the  Persian  ambassador  in  that  magnate's  own  lan- 
guage. After  these  linguistic  contests,  he  early  turned  to 
mathematics,  in  which  he  was  apparently  self-taught;  yet,  in 
his  seventeenth  year  he  discovered  an  error  in  Laplace's  Meca- 
nique  Celeste.  He  entered  Trinity  College  where  he  won  all 
kinds  of  distinctions,  being  famous  not  merely  as  a  mathema- 
tician, but  as  a  poet,  a  scholar,  and  a  metaphysician.  He  was 
appointed  Professor  of  Astronomy  and  Astronomer  Royal 
whilst  still  an  undergraduate.    He  predicted  "conical  refrac- 


IRISH  MKN  OF  SCIENCE 


47 


tion,"  afterwards  experimentally  proved  by  another  Irishman, 
Humphrey  Lloyd.  He  twice  received  the  Gold  Medal  of  the 
Royal  Society:  (i)  for  optical  discoveries;  (ii)  for  his  theory 
of  a  general  method  of  dynamics,  which  resolves  an  extremely 
abstruse  problem  relative  to  a  system  of  bodies  in  motion.  He 
was  the  discoverer  of  a  new  calculus,  that  of  Quaternions, 
which  attracted  the  attention  of  Professor  Tait  of  Edinburgh, 
and  was  by  him  made  comprehensible  to  lesser  mathematicians. 
It  is  far  too  abstruse  for  description  here. 

Sir  George  Gabriel  Stokes  (born  in  Sligo  1819,  d.  1903) 
was,  if  not  the  greatest  mathematician,  at  least  among  the 
greatest,  of  the  last  hundred  years.  He  was  educated  in  Cam- 
bridge, where  he  spent  the  rest  of  his  life,  being  appointed 
Lucasian  Professor  of  Mathematics  in  1849,  and  celebrating 
the  jubilee  of  that  appointment  in  1899.  He  was  member  of 
parliament  for  his  University,  and  for  a  time  occupied  the 
presidential  chair  of  the  Royal  Society.  He  devoted  himself, 
inter  alia,  to  optical  work,  and  is  perhaps  best  known  by  those 
researches  which  deal  with  the  undulatory  theory  of  light.  It 
was  on  this  subject  that  he  delivered  the  Burnett  lectures  in 
Aberdeen  (1883-1885). 

James  McCullagh,  the  son  of  a  poor  farmer,  was  bom  in 
Tyrone  in  1809,  d.  1847.  His  early  death,  due  to  his  own. 
hand  in  a  fit  of  insanity,  cut  short  his  work,  but  enough  re- 
mains to  permit  him  to  rank  amongst  the  great  mathematicians 
of  all  time,  his  most  important  work  being  his  memoir  on  sur- 
faces of  the  second  order. 

Humphrey  Lloyd  (b.  in  Dublin  1800,  d.  1881),  F.  R.  S. 
His  father  was  Provost  of  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  a  position 
subsequently  occupied  also  by  the  son.  Lloyd's  work  was 
chiefly  concerned  with  optics  and  magnetism,  and  it  was  in  con- 
nection with  the  former  that  he  carried  out  what  was  probably 
the  most  important  single  piece  of  work  of  his  life,  namely, 
the  experimental  proof  of  the  phenomenon  of  conical  refrac- 
tion which  had  been  predicted  by  Sir  William  Hamilton.  He 
was  responsible  for  the  erection  of  the  Magnetic  Observatory 
in  Dublin,  and  the  instruments  used  in  it  were  constructed 
under  his  observation  and  sometimes  from  his  designs  or 
modifications.   He  was  also  a  meteorologist  of  distinction. 


48 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


George  Salmon  (b.  in  Dublin  1819,  d.  1904),  like  the  last 
mentioned  subject,  was,  at  the  time  of  his  death,  Provost  of 
Trinit)'  Collie,  Dublin.  Besides  theological  writings,  he  con- 
tributed much  to  mathematical  science,  especially  in  the  direc- 
tions of  conic  sections,  anal}-tic  geometry,  higher  plane  curves, 
and  the  geometry'  of  three  dimensions.  He  was  a  Fellow  of 
the  Royal  Society-,  and  received  the  Copley  and  Royal  medals, 
as  well  as  distinctions  from  many  imiversities  and  learned 
societies. 

John  Casey  (b.  Kilkenny  1820,  d.  1891),  F.  R.  S.,  was  edu- 
cated at  a  National  School  and  became  a  teacher  in  one  in  later 
years.  Entirely  self-taught  as  a  mathematician,  he  raised  him- 
self from  the  htmible  position  which  he  occupied  to  be  a  uni- 
versity professor  (in  the  Catholic  University  of  Ireland,  and 
afterwards  in  the  Royal  University),  and  earned  the  highest 
reputation  as  one  of  the  greatest  authorities  on  plane  geometry. 
He  was  a  correspondent  of  eminent  mathematicians  all  over 
the  world. 

Henry  Hennessey  (b.  in  Cork  1826,  d.  1901),  F.  R.  S.,  was 
also  a  professor  in  the  Catholic  University  of  Ireland  and 
afterwards  in  the  Royal  College  of  Science  in  Dublin.  He  was 
a  writer  on  mathematics,  terrestrial  physics,  and  climatology. 

Benjamin  Williamson  (b.  in  Cork  1827),  F.  R.  S.,  is  a 
Senior  Fellow  of  Trinit}-  College,  Dublin,  and  a  distinguished 
writer  on  mathematical  subjects,  especially  on  the  differen- 
tial, integral,  and  infinitesimal  calculuses. 

Sir  Joseph  Larmor  (b.  in  Antrim  1857),  F.  R.  S.,  was  edu- 
cated at  Queen's  College,  Belfast,  and  in  Cambridge,  in  which 
last  place  he  has  spent  his  life  as  a  professor.  He  now  repre- 
sents the  University  in  parliament  and  is  secretary'  to  the 
Royal  Society.  He  is  well-known  for  his  writings  on  the 
ether  and  on  other  physical  as  well  as  mathematical  subjects. 

Astronomers. 

William  Parsons,  Earl  of  Rosse  (b.  in  York  1800,  d.  1867), 
F.  R.  S.,  was  a  \cry  distinguisiied  astronomer  who  experi- 
mented in  fluid  lenses  and  made  great  improvements  in  cast- 
ing specula  for  reflecting  telescopes.  From  1842-45  he  was 
engaged  upon  the  construction,  in  his  park  at  Parsonstown,  of 


IRISH  MEN  or  SCIENC£ 


49 


his  great  reflecting  telescope  58  feet  long.  This  instrument, 
which  cost  £30,000,  long  remained  the  largest  in  the  world.  He 
was  president  of  the  Royal  Society  from  1848  to  1S54. 

Sir  Howard  Grubb  (b.  1844),  F.  R.  S.,  is  known  all  over 
the  world  for  his  telescopes  and  for  the  remarkable  advances 
which  he  has  made  in  the  construction  of  lenses  for  instru- 
ments of  the  largest  size. 

Sir  Robert  Ball  (b.  in  Dublin  1840,  d.  1913),  F.  R.  S.  Origi- 
nally Lord  Rosse's  astronomer  at  Parsonstown,  he  migrated 
as  professor  to  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  and  subsequently 
became  Lowndean  Professor  of  Astronomy  at  Cambridge.  He 
was  a  great  authority  on  the  mathematical  theor}'  of  screws, 
and  his  popular  works  on  astronomy  have  made  him  known 
to  a  far  wider  circle  of  readers  than  those  who  can  grapple 
with  his  purely  scientific  treatises. 

William  Edward  Wilson  (b.  Co.  Westmeath  1851,  d.  1908), 
F.  R.  S.  A  man  of  independent  means,  he  erected,  with  the 
help  of  his  father,  an  astronomical  obser\^atory  at  his  residence. 
In  this  well-equipped  building  he  made  many  photographic 
researches,  especially  into  the  nature  of  nebulae.  He  also 
devoted  himself  to  solar  physics,  and  wrote  some  remarkable 
papers  on  the  sudden  appearance  in  1902  of  the  star  Nova 
Persei.  He  was  the  first  to  call  attention  to  the  probability 
that  radium  plays  a  part  in  the  maintenance  of  solar  heat.  In 
fact,  the  science  of  radio-activity  was  engaging  his  keenest 
interest  at  the  time  of  his  early  death. 

A.  A.  Rambaut  (b.  Waterford  1859),  F.  R.  S.,  formerly 
Astronomer  Royal  for  Ireland  and  now  Radclifife  Observer 
at  Oxford,  is  one  of  the  leading  astronomers  of  the  day. 

Physicists. 

Lord  Kelvin,  better  known  as  Sir  William  Thompson  (b. 
Belfast  1824,  d.  1907),  F.  R.  S.  Amongst  the  greatest  physi- 
cists who  have  ever  lived,  his  name  comes  second  only  to  that 
of  Ne\\i;on.  He  was  educated  at  Cambridge,  became  professor 
of  natural  philosophy  in  Glasgow  University  in  1846,  and  cele- 
brated the  jubilee  of  his  appointment  in  1S96.  To  the  public 
his  greatest  achievement  was  the  electric  cabling  of  the  Atlantic 
Ocean,  for  which  he  was  knighted  in  1866.   His  electrometers 


50 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


and  electric  meters,  his  sounding  apparatus,  and  his  mariners* 
compass  are  all  well-known  and  highly  valued  instruments.  To 
his  scientific  fellows,  however,  his  greatest  achievements  were 
in  the  field  of  pure  science,  especially  in  connection  with  his 
thermodynamic  researches,  including  the  doctrine  of  the  dis- 
sipation or  degradation  of  energy.  To  this  brief  statement 
may  be  added  mention  of  his  work  in  connection  with  hydro- 
dynamics and  his  magnetic  and  electric  discoveries.  His 
papers  in  connection  with  wave  and  vortex  movements  are  also 
most  remarkable.  He  was  awarded  the  Royal  and  Copley 
medals  and  was  an  original  member  of  the  Order  of  Merit. 
He  received  distinctions  from  many  universities  and  learned 
societies. 

George  Francis  Fitzgerald  (b.  Dublin  1851,  d.  1901),  F.  R.  S., 
was  fellow  and  professor  of  natural  philosophy  in  Trinity  Col- 
lege, Dublin,  where  he  was  educated.  He  was  the  first  person 
to  call  the  attention  of  the  world  to  the  importance  of  Hertz's 
experiment.  Perhaps  his  most  important  work,  interrupted  by 
his  labors  in  connection  with  education  and  terminated  by  his 
early  death,  was  that  in  connection  with  the  nature  of  the  ether. 

George  Johnston  Stoney  (b.  King's  Co.  1826,  d.  1911), 
F.  R.  S.,  after  being  astronomer  at  Parsonstown  and  professor 
of  natural  philosophy  at  Galway,  became  secretary  to  the 
Queen's  University  and  occupied  that  position  until  the  dissolu- 
tion of  the  university  in  1882.  He  wrote  many  papers  on 
geometrical  optics  and  on  molecular  physics,  but  his  great  claim 
to  remembrance  is  that  he  first  suggested,  "on  the  basis  of 
Faraday's  law  of  Electrolysis,  that  an  absolute  unit  of  quantity 
of  electricity  exists  in  that  amount  of  it  which  attends  each 
chemical  bond  or  valency  and  gave  the  name,  now  generally 
adopted,  of  electron  to  this  small  quantity."  He  proposed  the 
electronic  theory  of  the  origin  of  the  complex  ether  vibrations 
which  proceed  from  a  molecule  emitting  light. 

John  Tyndall  (b.  Leighlin  Bridge,  Co.  Carlow,  1820,  d. 
1893),  F.  R.  S.,  professor  at  the  Royal  Institution  and  a  fellow- 
worker  in  many  ways  with  Huxley,  especially  on  the  subject  of 
glaciers.  He  wrote  also  on  heat  as  a  mode  of  motion  and  was 
the  author  of  many  scientific  papers,  but  will,  perhaps,  be  best 
remembered  as  the  author  of  a  Presidential  Address  to  the 
British  Association  in  Belfast  (1874),  which  was  the  high- 


IRISH  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 


51 


water  mark  of  the  mid- Victorian  materialism  at  its  most  trium- 
phant moment. 

Chemists. 

Richard  Kirwan  (b.  Galway  1733,  d.  1812),  F.  R.  S.  A  man 
of  independent  means,  he  devoted  himself  to  the  study  of  chem- 
istry and  mineralogy  and  was  awarded  the  Copley  medal  of 
the  Royal  Society.  He  published  works  on  mineralogy  and  on 
the  analysis  of  mineral  waters,  and  was  the  first  in  Ireland  to 
publish  analyses  of  soils  for  agricultural  purposes,  a  research 
which  laid  the  foundation  of  scientific  agriculture  in  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland. 

Maxwell  Simpson  (b.  Armagh  1815,  d.  1902),  F.  R.  S.,  held 
the  chair  of  chemistry  in  Queen's  College,  Cork,  for  twenty 
years  and  published  a  number  of  papers  in  connection  with 
his  subject  and  especially  with  the  behavior  of  cyanides,  with 
the  study  of  which  compounds  his  name  is  most  associated. 

Cornelius  O'Sullivan  (b.  Brandon,  1841,  d.  1897),  F.  R.  S., 
was  for  many  years  chemist  to  the  great  firm  of  Bass  &  Co., 
brewers  at  Burton-on-Trent,  and  in  that  capacity  became  one 
of  the  leading  exponents  of  the  chemistry  of  fermentation  in 
the  world. 

James  Emerson  Reynolds  (b.  Dublin  1844),  F.  R.  S.,  pro- 
fessor of  chemistry,  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  for  many  years,, 
discovered  the  primary  thiocarbamide  and  a  number  of  other 
chemical  substances,  including  a  new  class  of  colloids  and 
several  groups  of  organic  and  other  compounds  of  the  element 
silicon. 

Among  others  only  the  names  of  the  following  can  be  men- 
tioned : — 

Sir  Robert  Kane  (b.  Dublin  1809,  d.  1890),  professor  of 
chemistry  in  Dublin  and  founder  and  first  director  of  the 
Museum  of  Industry,  now  the  National  Museum.  He  was 
president  of  Queen's  College,  Cork,  as  was  William  K.  Sulli- 
van (b.  Cork  1822,  d.  1890),  formerly  professor  of  chemistry 
in  the  Catholic  University.  Sir  William  O'Shaughnessy  Brooke, 
F.  R.  S.  (b.  Limerick  1809,  d.  1889),  professor  of  chemistry 
and  assay  master  in  Calcutta,  is  better  known  as  the  intro- 
ducer of  the  telegraphic  system  into  India  and  its  first  superin- 
tendent. 


(5) 


52 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


Biologists. 

William  Henry  Harvey  (b.  Limerick  1814,  d.  1S66),  F.  R,  S., 
was  a  botanist  of  very  great  distinction.  During  a  lengthy 
residence  in  South  Africa,  he  made  a  careful  study  of  the 
flora  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  and  published  The  Genera  of 
South  African  Plants.  After  this  he  was  made  keeper  of  the 
Herbarium,  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  but,  obtaining  leave  of 
absence,  travelled  in  Xorth  and  South  America,  exploring  the 
coast  from  Halifax  to  the  Keys  of  Florida,  in  order  to  collect 
materials  for  his  great  work.  Nereis  B or eali- Americana,  pub- 
lished by  the  Smithsonian  Institution.  Subsequently  he  visited 
Ceylon,  Australia,  Tasmania,  Xew  Zealand,  and  the  Friendly 
and  Fiji  Islands,  collecting  algae.  The  results  were  published 
in  his  Phycologia  Australis.  At  the  time  of  his  death  he  was 
engaged  on  his  Flora  Capensis,  and  was  generally  considered 
the  first  authority  on  algae  in  the  world. 

William  Archer  (b.  Co.  Down  1827,  d.  1897),  F.  R.  S.,  de- 
voted his  life  to  the  microscopic  examination  of  freshwater 
organisms,  especially  desmids  and  diatoms.  He  attained  a 
\try  prominent  place  in  this  branch  of  work  among  men  of 
science.  Perhaps  his  most  remarkable  discovery  was  that  of 
Chlamydomyxa  labyrinthuloides  (in  1868),  "one  of  the  most 
remarkable  and  enigmatical  of  all  known  microscopic  organ- 
isms." 

George  James  Alhnan  (b.  Cork  1812,  d.  1898),  F.  R.  S.,  pro- 
fessor of  botany  in  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  and  aftersvarls 
Regius  Professor  of  natural  history  in  the  University  of  Edin- 
burgh, published  many  papers  on  botanical  and  zoological 
subjects,  but  his  great  work  was  that  on  the  g}Tnnoblastic 
Hydrozoa,  "without  doubt  the  most  important  systematic  work 
dealing  with  the  group  of  Coelenterata  that  has  ever  been  pro- 
duced." 

Amongst  eminent  living  members  of  the  class  under  con- 
sideration may  be  mentioned  Alexander  Macalister  (b.  Dub- 
lin 1844),  F.  R.  S.,  professor  of  anatomy,  first  in  Dublin  and 
now  in  Cambridge,  an  eminent  morphologist  and  anthropol- 
ogist, and  Henry  Horatio  Dixon  (b.  Dublin).  F.  R.  S.,  pro- 
fessor of  botany  in  Trinity  College,  an  authorit}'  on  vegetable 
physiology,  especially  problems  dealing  with  the  sap. 


IRISH  MEN  SCIENCE 


53 


Geologists. 

Samuel  Haughton  (b.  Carlow  1821,  d.  1897),  F.  R.  S.,  after 
earning  a  considerable  reputation  as  a  mathematician  and  a 
geologist,  and  taking  Anglican  orders,  determined  to  study 
medicine  and  entered  the  school  of  that  subject  in  Trinity 
College.  After  graduating  he  became  the  reformer,  it  might 
even  be  said  the  re-founder,  of  that  school.  He  devoted  ten 
years  to  the  study  of  the  mechanical  principles  of  muscular 
action,  and  published  his  Animal  Mechanism,  probably  his 
greatest  work.  He  will  long  be  remembered  as  the  introducer 
of  the  "long  drop"  as  a  method  of  capital  execution.  He 
might  have  been  placed  in  several  of  the  categories  which  have 
been  dealt  with,  but  that  of  geologist  has  been  selected,  since 
in  the  later  part  of  his  most  versatile  career- he  was  professor 
of  geology  in  Trinity  College,  Dublin. 

Valentine  Ball  (b.  Dublin  1843,  d.  1894),  F.  R.  S.,  a  brother 
of  Sir  Robert,  joined  the  Geological  Survey  of  India,  and  in 
that  capacity  became  an  authority  not  only  on  geology  but  also 
on  ornithology  and  anthropology.  His  best  known  work  is 
Jungle-Life  in  India.  In  later  life  he  was  director  of  the  Na- 
tional Museum,  Dublin. 

Medical  Science. 

Very  brief  note  can  be  taken  of  the  many  shining  lights  in 
Irish  medical  science.  Robert  James  Graves  (1796-1853),  F. 
R.  S.,  after  whom  is  named  ''Graves's  Disease",  was  one  of  the 
greatest  of  clinical  physicians.  His  System  of  Clinical  Medi- 
cine was  a  standard  work  and  was  extolled  by  Trousseau,  the 
greatest  physician  that  France  has  ever  had,  in  the  highest 
terms  of  appreciation. 

William  Stokes  (1804-1878),  Regius  Professor  of  Medicine 
in  Trinity  College,  and  the  author  of  a  Theory  and  Practice  of 
Medicine,  known  all  over  the  civilized  world,  was  equally  cele- 
brated. 

To  these  must  be  added  Sir  Dominic  Corrigan  (1802-1880), 
the  first  Catholic  to  occupy  the  position  of  President  of  the 
College  of  Physicians  in  Dublin,  an  authority  on  heart  disease, 
and  the  first  adequate  describer  of  aortic  patency,  a  form  of 
ailment  long  called  "Corrigan's  Disease".  **Colles's  Fracture" 
is  a  familiar  term  in  the  mouths  of  surgfeons.    It  derives  its 


54 


THE  GI/)RIES  OF  IRELAND 


name  from  Abraham  CoUes  (1773-1843),  the  first  surgeon  in 
the  world  to  tie  the  innominate  artery,  as  ''Butcher's  Saw",  a 
well-known  implement,  does  from  another  eminent  surgeon,' 
Richard  Butcher,  Regius  Professor  in  Trinity  College  in  the 
seventies  of  the  last  century. 

Sir  Rupert  Boyce  (1863-1911),  F.  R.  S.,  though  born  in 
London,  had  an  Irish  father  and  mother.  Entering  the  medi- 
cal profession,  he  was  assistant  professor  of  pathology  at 
University  College,  London,  and  subsequently  professor  of 
pathology  in  University  College,  Liverpool,  which  he  was 
largely  instrumental  in  turning  into  the  University  of  Liver- 
pool. He  was  foremost  in  launching  and  directing  the  Liver- 
pool School  of  Tropical  Medicine,  which  has  had  such  wide- 
spread results  all  over  the  world  in  elucidating  the  problems 
and  checking  the  ravages  of  the  diseases  peculiar  to  hot  coun- 
tries. It  was  for  his  services  in  this  direction  that  he  was 
knighted  in  1906. 

Sir  Richard  Quain  (b.  Mallow  1816,  d.  1898),  F.  R.  S., 
spent  most  of  his  life  in  London,  where  he  was  for  years  the 
most  prominent  physician.  He  wrote  on  many  subjects,  but 
the  Dictionary  of  Medicine,  which  he  edited  and  which  bears 
his  name,  has  made  itself  and  its  editor  known  all  over  the 
world. 

Sir  Almroth  Wright  (b.  1861),  F.  R.  S.,  is  the  greatest  living 
authority  on  the  important  subject  of  vaccino-therapy,  which, 
indeed,  may  be  said  to  owe  its  origin  to  his  researches,  as  do 
the  methods  for  measuring  the  protective  substances  in  the 
human  blood.  He  was  the  discoverer  of  the  anti-typhoid  in- 
jection which  has  done  so  much  to  stay  the  ravages  of  that 
disease. 

Engineering. 

Bindon  Blood  Stoney  (1828-1909),  F.  R.  S.,  made  his  repu- 
tation first  as  an  astronomer  by  discovering  the  spiral  character 
of  the  great  nebula  in  Andromeda.  Turning  to  engineering, 
he  was  responsible  for  the  construction  of  many  important 
works,  especially  in  connection  with  the  port  of  Dublin.  He 
was  brother  of  G.  J.  Stoney. 

Sir  Charles  Parsons  (b.  1854),  F.  R.  S.,  fourth  son  of  the 
third  Earl  of  Rosse,  is  the  engineer  who  developed  the  steam 


IRISH  me;n  of  science 


55 


turbine  system  and  made  it  suitable  for  the  generation  of 
electricity,  and  for  the  propulsion  of  war  and  mercantile 
vessels.  If  he  has  revolutionized  traffic  on  the  water,  so  on 
the  land  has  John  Boyd  Dunlop  (still  living),  who  discovered 
the  pneumatic  tire  with  such  wide-spread  results  for  motor- 
cars, bicycles,  and  such  means  of  locomotion. 

Misce:llanj:ous. 

Admiral  Sir  Leopold  McClintock  (b.  Dundalk  1819,  d.  1907), 
F.  R.  S.,  was  one  of  the  great  Arctic  explorers,  having 
spent  eleven  navigable  seasons  and  six  winters  in  those  regions. 
He  was  the  chief  leader  and  organizer  of  the  Franklin  searches. 
From  the  scientific  point  of  view  he  made  a  valuable  collec- 
tion of  miocene  fossils  from  Greenland,  and  enabled  Haughton 
to  prepare  the  geological  map  and  memoir  of  the  Parry  Archi- 
pelago. 

John  Ball  (b.  Dublin  1818,  d.  1889),  F.  R.  S.,  educated 
at  Oscott,  passed  the  examination  for  a  high  degree  at  Cam- 
bridge, but,  being  a  Catholic,  was  excluded  from  the  degree 
itself  and  any  other  honors  which  a  Protestant  might  have 
attained  to.  He  travelled  widely  and  published  many  works 
on  the  natural  history  of  Europe  and  South  America  from 
Panama  to  Tierra  del  Fuego.  He  was  the  first  to  suggest  thp 
utilization  of  the  electric  telegraph  for  meteorological  pur- 
poses connected  with  storm  warnings. 

Space  ought  to  be  found  for  a  cursory  mention  of  that 
strange  person,  Dionysius  Lardner  (1793-1859),  who  by  his 
Lardner^s  Cyclopaedia  in  132  vols.,  his  Cabinet  Library,  and 
his  Museum  of  Science  and  Art,  did  much  to  popularize  science 
in  an  unscientific  day. 

References  : 

The  principal  sources  of  information  are  the  National  Dictionary 
of  Biography;  the  Obituary  Notices  of  the  Royal  Societ7  (passages 
in  inverted  commas  are  from  these)  ;  "Who's  Who"  (for  living  per- 
sons) ;  Healy:  Ireland's  Ancient  Schools  and  Scholars;  Hyde:  Lit- 
erary History  of  Ireland ;  Joyce :  Social  History  of  Ancient  Ireland ; 
Moore:  Medicine  in  the  British  Isles. 


LAW  IN  IRELAND 


By  Laurences  Ginnell,  B.  L.,  M.  P. 

A DISTINCTION.  Ireland  having  been  a  self-ruled  coun- 
try for  a  stretch  of  some  two  thousand  years,  then  vio- 
lently brought  under  subjection  to  foreign  rule,  regaining  leg- 
islative independence  for  a  brief  period  toward  the  close  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  then  by  violence  and  corruption  deprived 
of  that  independence  and  again  brought  under  the  same  foreign 
rule,  to  which  it  is  still  subject,  the  expression  "Law  in  Ire- 
land" comprises  the  native  and  the  foreign,  the  laws  devised 
by  the  Irish  Nation  for  its  own  governance  and  the  laws  im- 
posed upon  it  from  without :  two  sets,  codes,  or  systems  proper 
to  two  entirely  distinct  social  structures  having  no  relation 
and  but  little  resemblance  to  each  other.  Whatever  may  be 
thought  of  either  as  law,  the  former  is  Irish  in  every  sense, 
and  vastly  the  more  interesting  historically,  archaeologically, 
philologically,  and  in  many  other  ways ;  the  latter  being  Eng- 
lish law  in  Ireland,  and  not  truly  Irish  in  any  sense. 

ORIGIN  AND  CHARACTER  OF  IRISH  LAW.  Sean- 
chus  agus  Feineachus  na  hEireann  =  Hiherniae  Antiquitates  et 
Sanctiones  Le gales  =  The  Ancient  Laws  and  Decisions  of  the 
Feini,  of  Ireland.  Sen  or  sean  (pronounced  shan)  ="old," 
differs  from  most  Gaelic  adjectives  in  preceding  the  noun  it 
qualifies.  It  also  tends  to  coalesce  and  become  a  prefix. 
Seanchus  (shanech-us)  =  "ancient  law."  Feineachus  (fainech- 
us)  =the  law  of  the  Feini,  who  were  the  Milesian  farmers, 
free  members  of  the  clans,  the  most  important  class  in  the  an- 
cient Irish  community.  Their  laws  were  composed  in  their  con- 
temporary language,  the  Bearla  Feini,  a  distinct  form  of 
Gaelic.  Several  nations  of  the  Aryan  race  are  known  to  have 
cast  into  metre  or  rhythmical  prose  their  laws  and  such  other 
knowledge  as  they  desired  to  communicate,  preserve,  and  trans- 
mit, before  writing  came  into  use.  The  Irish  went  further  and, 
for  greater  facility  in  committing  to  memory  and  retaining 
there,  put  their  laws  into  a  kind  of  rhymed  verse,  of  which  they 
may  have  been  the  inventors.  By  this  device,  aided  by  the  iso- 
lated geographical  position  of  Ireland,  the  sanctity  of  age,  and 


LAW  IN  IRE;IvAND 


57 


the  apprehension  that  any  change  of  word  or  phrase  might 
change  the  law  itself,  these  archaic  laws,  when  subsequently 
committed  to  writing,  were  largely  preserved  from  the  progres- 
sive changes  to  which  all  spoken  languages  are  subject,  with  the 
result  that  we  have  today,  embedded  in  the  Gaelic  text  and 
commentaries  of  the  Senchus  Mor,  the  Book  of  Aicill,  and 
other  law  works,  available  in  English  translations  made  under 
&  Royal  Commission  appointed  by  Government  in  1852,  and 
published,  at  intervals  extending  over  forty  years,  in  six  vol- 
umes of  "Ancient  Laws  and  Institutions  of  Ireland,"  a  mass 
of  archaic  words,  phrases,  law,  literature,  and  information  on 
the  habits  and  manners  of  the  people,  not  equalled  in  antiquity, 
quantity,  or  authenticity  in  any  other  Celtic  source.  In  Eng- 
lish they  are  commonly  called  Brehon  Laws,  from  the  genitive 
case  singular  of  Brethem  —  "judge",  genitive  Brethemain  (pro- 
nounced brehun),  as  Erin  is  an  oblique  case  of  Eire,  and  as 
Latin  words  are  sometimes  adopted  in  the  genitive  in  modem 
languages  which  themselves  have  no  case  distinctions.  It  is 
not  to  be  inferred  from  this  name  that  the  laws  are  judge- 
made.  They  are  rather  case  law,  in  parts  possibly  enacted  by 
some  of  the  various  assemblies  at  which  the  laws  were  pro- 
mulgated or  rehearsed,  but  for  the  most  part  simple  declara- 
tions of  law  originating  in  custom  and  moral  justice,  and  rec- 
ords of  judgments  based  upon  "the  precedents  and  commenta- 
ries", in  the  sort  of  cases  common  to  agricultural  communities 
of  the  tirne,  many  of  the  provisions  being  as  inapplicable  to 
modern  life  as  modern  laws  would  be  to  ancient  life.  A  reader 
is  impressed  by  the  extraordinary  number  and  variety  of 
cases  with  their  still  more  numerous  details  and  circumstances 
accumulated  in  the  course  of  long  ages,  the  manner  in  which 
the  laws  are  inextricably  interwoven  with  the  interlocking 
clan  system,  and  the  absence  of  scientific  arrangement  or 
gui*ding  principle  except  those  of  moral  justice,  clemency,  and 
the  good  of  the  community.  This  defect  in  arrangement  is 
natural  in  writings  intended,  as  these  were,  for  the  use  of 
judges  and  professors,  experts  in  the  subjects  with  which  they 
deal,  but  makes  the  task  of  presenting  a  concise  statement  of 
them  difficult  and  uncertain. 


58 


THE  GIX)RIES  0^  IRELAND 


SOCIETY  LAW.  The  law  and  the  social  system  were 
inseparable  parts  of  a  complicated  whole,  mutually  cause  and 
consequence  of  each  other.  Tuath,  clann,  cinel,  cine,  and  fine 
(pronounced  thooah,  clong,  kinnel,  kineh,  and  fin-yeh)  were 
terms  used  to  denote  a  tribe  or  set  of  relatives,  in  reality  or 
by  adoption,  claiming  descent  from  a  common  ancestor,  form- 
ing a  community  occupying  and  owning  a  given  territory. 
Tuath  in  course  of  time  came  to  be  applied  indifferently  to  the 
people  and  to  their  territory.  Fine,  sometimes  designating  a 
whole  tribe,  more  frequently  meant  a  part  of  it,  occupying  a 
distinct  portion  of  the  territory,  a  potential  microcosm  or 
nucleus  of  a  clan,  having  limited  autonomy  in  the  conduct  of 
its  own  immediate  affairs.  The  constitution  of  this  organism, 
whether  as  contemplated  by  the  law  or  in  the  less  perfect 
actual  practice,  is  alike  elusive,  and  underwent  changes.  For 
the  purpose  of  illustration,  the  fine  may  be  said  to  consist,  theo- 
retically, of  the  "seventeen  men"  frequently  mentioned 
throughout  the  laws,  namely,  the  flaithfine  =  chief  of  the  fine; 
the  geil fine  =  his  four  fullgrown  sons  or  other  nearest  male 
relatives;  the  deirhhfine,  tarfine,  and  innfine,  each  consisting 
of  four  heads  of  families  in  wider  concentric  circles  of  kin- 
ship, say  first,  second,  and  third  cousins  of  the  flaithfine.  The 
fine  was  liable,  in  measure  determined  by  those  circles,  for 
contracfts,  fines,  and  damages  incurred  by  any  of  its  members 
so  far  as  his  own  property  was  insufficient,  and  was  in  the 
same  degree  entitled  to  share  advantages  of  a  like  kind  accru- 
ing. Intermarriage  within  this  fine  was  prohibited.  The 
modern  term  "sept"  is  applied  sometimes  to  this  group  and 
sometimes  to  a  wider  group  united  under  a  flaith  (flah)  = 
"chief",  elected  by  the  flaith  fines  and  provided,  for  his  public 
services,  with  free  land  proportionate  to  the  area  of  the  dis- 
trict and  the  number  of  clansmen  in  it.  Clann  might  mean  the 
whole  Irish  nation,  or  an  intermediate  homogeneous  group  of 
fines  having  for  wider  purposes  a  flaith  or  ri-tuatha  =  king 
of  one  tuath,  elected  by  the  flaiths  and  flaith  fines,  subject  to 
elaborate  qualifications  as  to  person,  character,  and  training, 
which  limited  their  choice,  and  provided  with  a  larger  portion 
of  free  land.  This  was  the  lowest  chief  to  whom  the  title 
ri,  righ  (both  pr.  ree)  =  rex,  or  "king",  was  applied.  A 


tAW  IN  IREI.AND 


59 


group  of  these  kinglets  connected  by  blood  or  territory  or 
policy,  and  their  flaiths,  elected,  from  a  still  narrower  circle  of 
specially  trained  men  within  their  own  rank,  the  ri-mor- 
tuatha  =  king  of  the  territory  so  composed,  to  whose  office  a 
still  larger  area  of  free  land  was  attached.  In  turn,  kings  of 
this  class,  with  their  respective  sub-kings  and  flaiths,  elected 
from  among  the  rio gh-dhamhna  (ree-uch-dhowna)  =  materia 
principum  or  "king-timber'*,  a  royal  fine  specially  educated  and 
trained,  a  ri-cuighidh  (ree  coo-ee-hee)  supreme  over  five  n- 
mor-tuathas  ==  roughly,  a  fourth  of  Ireland.  These,  with  their 
respective  principal  supporters,  elected  the  ard-ri  ==  "supreme 
king",  of  Ireland,  who  for  ages  held  his  court  and  national 
assemblies  at  Tara  and  enjoyed  the  kingdom  of  Meath  for  his 
mensal  land.  Usually  the  election  was  not  direct  to  the  king- 
ship, but  to  the  position  of  tanaiste  =  "  second"  (in  authority), 
heir-apparent  to  the  kingship.  This  was  also  the  rule  in  the 
learned  professions  and  "noble"  arts,  which  were  similarly 
endowed  wth  free  land.  The  most  competent  among  those 
specially  trained,  whether  son  or  outsider,  should  succeed  to 
the  position  and  land.  All  such  land  was  legally  indivisible 
and  inalienable  and  descended  in  its  entirety  to  the  successor, 
who  might,  or  might  not,  be  a  relative  of  the  occupant.  The 
beneficiaries  were,  however,  free  to  retain  any  land  that  be- 
longed to  them  as  private  individuals. 

Membership  of  the  clan  was  an  essential  qualification  for 
every  position;  but  occasionally  two  clans  amalgamated,  or  a 
small  fine,  or  desirable  individual,  was  co-opted  into  the  clan — 
in  other  words,  naturalized.  The  rules  of  kinship  determined 
eineachlann  (ain-yach-long)  =  "honor  value",  the  assessed 
value  of  status,  with  its  correlative  rights,  obligations,  and  lia- 
bilities in  connection  with  all  matters  civil  and  criminal ;  largely 
supplied  the  place  of  contract ;  endowed  members  of  the  clan 
with  birthrights ;  and  bound  them  into  a  compact  social,  politi- 
cal, and  mutual  insurance  copartnership,  self-controlled  and 
self-reliant.  Eineachlann  rested  on  the  two-fold  basis  of  kin- 
ship and  property,  expanding  as  a  clansman  by  acquisition  of 
property  and  effluxion  of  time  progressed  upward  from  one 
grade  to  another;  diminishing  if  he  sank;  vanishing  if  for 
crime  he  was  expelled  from  the  clan. 


60 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


FOSTERAGE.  To  our  minds,  one  of  the  most  curious  cus- 
toms prevalent  among  the  ancient  Irish  was  that  of  iarrad, 
called  also  altar  =  "fosterage" — curious  in  itself  and  in  the  fact 
that  in  all  the  abundance  of  law  and  literature  relating  to  it 
no  logically  valid  reason  is  given  why  wealthy  parents  nor- 
mally put  out  their  children,  from  one  year  old  to  fifteen  in 
the  case  of  a  daughter  and  to  seventeen  in  the  case  of  a  son,  to 
be  reared  in  another  family,  while  perhaps  receiving  and  rear- 
ing children  of  other  parents  sent  to  them.  As  modern  life 
does  not  comprise  either  the  custom  or  a  reason  for  it,  we 
may  assume  that  fosterage  was  a  consequence  of  the  clan 
system,  and  that  its  practice  strengthened  the  ties  of  kinship 
and  sympathy.  This  conjecture  is  corroborated  by  the  numer- 
ous instances  in  history  and  in  story  of  fosterage  afifection 
proving,  when  tested,  stronger  than  the  natural  affection  of 
relatives  by  birth.  What  is  more,  long  after  the  dissolution 
of  the  clans,  fosterage  has  continued  stealthily  in  certain  dis- 
tricts in  which  the  old  race  of  chiefs  and  clansmen  contrived 
to  cling  together  to  the  old  sod;  and  the  affection  generated 
by  it  has  been  demonstrated,  down  to  the  middle  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  The  present  writer  has  heard  it  spoken  of 
lovingly,  in  half-Irish,  by  simple  old  people,  whom  to  question 
would  be  cruel  and  irreverent. 

LAND  LAW.  The  entire  territory  was  originally,  and 
always  continued  to  be,  the  absolute  property  of  the  entire 
clan.  Not  even  the  private  residence  of  a  clansman,  with  its 
maighin  digona  =  little  lawn  or  precinct  of  sanctuary,  within 
which  himself  and  his  family  and  property  were  inviolable, 
could  be  sold  to  an  outsider.  Private  ownership,  though  rather 
favored  in  the  administration  of  the  law,  was  prevented  from 
becoming  general  by  the  fundamental  ownership  of  the  clan 
and  the  birthright  of  every  free-bom  clansman  to  a  sufficiency 
of  the  land  of  his  native  territory  for  his  subsistence.  The 
land  officially  held  as  described  was  not,  until  the  population 
became  numerous,  a  serious  encroachment  upon  this  right. 
What  remained  outside  this  and  the  residential  patches  of 
private  land  was  classified  as  cultivable  and  uncultivable.  The 
former  was  the  common  property  of  the  clansmen,  but  was 
held  and  used  in  severalty  for  the  time  being,  subject  to 


LAW  IN  IRELAND 


61 


gabhail-cine  (gowal-kinneh)  =  clan-resumption  and  redistribu- 
tion by  authority  of  an  assembly  of  the  clan  or  fine  at  intervals 
of  from  one  to  three  years,  according  to  local  customs  and 
circumstances,  for  the  purpose  of  satisfying  the  rights  of 
young  clansmen  and  dealing  with  any  land  left  derelict  by 
de^th  or  forfeiture,  compensation  being  paid  for  any  unex- 
hausted improvements.  The  clansmen,  being  owners  in  this 
limited  sense,  and  the  only  owners,  had  no  rent  to  pay.  They 
paid  tribute  for  public  purposes,  such  as  the  making  of  roads, 
to  the  flaith  as  a  public  officer,  as  they  were  bound  to  render, 
or  had  the  privilege  of  rendering — according  to  how  they  re- 
garded it — military  service  when  required,  not  to  the  flaith  as 
a  feudal  lord,  which  he  was  not,  but  to  the  clan,  of  which  the 
flaith  was  head  and  representative. 

The  uncultivable,  unreclaimed  forest,  mountain,  and  bog- 
land  was  common  property  in  the  wider  sense  that  there  was 
no  several  appropriation  of  it  even  temporarily  by  individuals. 
It  was  used  promiscuously  by  the  clansmen  for  grazing  stock, 
procuring  fuel,  pursuing  game,  or  any  other  advantage  yielded 
by  it  in  its  natural  state. 

Kings  and  flaiths  were  great  stock-owners,  and  were  allowed 
to  let  for  short  terms  portions  of  their  official  lands.  What 
they  more  usually  let  to  clansmen  was  cattle  to  graze  either  on 
private  land  or  on  a  specified  part  of  the  official  land,  not 
measured,  but  calculated  according  to  the  number  of  beasts  it 
was  able  to  support.  A  flaith  whose  stock  for  letting  ran  short 
hired  some  from  a  king  and  sublet  them  to  his  own  people.  A 
feinej  aithech,  or  ceile  (kailyeh),  as  a  farmer  was  generally 
called,  might  hire  stock  in  one  of  two  distinct  ways:  saer=^ 
"free",  which  was  regulated  by  the  law,  left  his  status  unim- 
paired, could  not  be  terminated  arbitrarily  or  unjustly,  under 
which  he  paid  one-third  of  the  value  of  the  stock  yearly  for 
seven  years,  at  the  end  of  which  time  what  remained  of  the 
stock  became  his  property,  and  in  any  dispute  relating  to 
which  he  was  competent  to  sue  or  defend  even  though  the 
flaith  gave  evidence ;  or  daer  =  "bond",  which  was  matter  of 
bargain  and  not  of  law,  was  subject  to  onerous  conditions  and 
contingencies,  including  maintenance  of  kings,  flaiths,  or  bre- 
hons,  with  their  retinues,  on  visitations,  of  disbanded  soldiers. 


62 


TH^  GlyORies  OF  IRELAND 


etc.,  under  which  the  stock  always  remained  the  property  of 
the  flaith,  regarding  which  the  ceile  could  not  give  evidence 
against  that  of  the  flaith,  which  degraded  the  ceile  and  his  fine 
and  impaired  their  status;  a  bargain  therefore  which  could 
not  be  entered  into  without  the  sanction  of  the  fine.  This 
prohibition  was  rendered  operative  by  the  legal  provision  that 
in  case  of  default  the  flaith  could  not  recover  from  the  fine 
unless  their  consent  had  been  obtained.  The  letting  of  stock, 
especially  of  daer-stook,  increased  the  flaith' s  power  as  a  lender 
over  borrowers,  subject,  however,  to  the  check  that  his  rank 
and  eineachlann  depended  on  the  number  of  independent  clans- 
men in  his  district. 

Though  workers  in  precious  metals,  as  their  ornaments 
show,  the  ancient  Irish  did  not  coin  or  use  money.  Sales 
were  by  barter.  All  payments,  tribute,  rent,  fulfilment  of 
contract,  fine,  damages,  wages,  or  however  else  arising,  were 
made  in  kind — horses,  cows,  store  cattle,  sheep,  pigs,  corn, 
meal,  malt,  bacon,  salt  beef,  geese,  butter,  honey,  wool,  flax, 
yarn,  cloth,  dye-plants,  leather,  manufactured  articles  of  use 
or  ornament,  gold,  and  silver — whatever  one  party  could  spare 
and  the  other  find  a  use  for. 

Tributes  and  rent,  being  alike  paid  in  kind  and  to  the  same 
person,  were  easily  confused.  This  tempted  the  flaith,  as  the 
system  relaxed,  to  extend  his  official  power  in  the  direction  of 
ownership ;  but  never  to  the  extent  of  enabling  him  to  evict  a 
clansman.  For  a  crime  a  clansman  might  be  expelled  from 
clan  and  territory;  but,  apart  from  crime,  the  idea  of  eviction 
from  one's  homestead  was  inconceivable.  Not  even  when  a 
daer-ceile,  or  "unfree  peasant",  failed  to  make  the  stipulated 
payments  could  the  flaith  do  more  than  sue  as  for  any  other 
debt;  and,  if  successful,  he  was  bound,  in  seizing,  to  leave  the 
family  food-material  and  implements  necessary  for  living  and 
recovering. 

LAW  OF  DISTRAINING.  Athgahail  (ah-gowil)=  "dis- 
tress", was  the  universal  legal  mode  of  obtaining  anything  due, 
or  justice  or  redress  in  any  matter,  whether  civil  or  criminal, 
contract  or  tort.  Every  command  or  prohibition  of  the  law,  if 
not  obeyed,  was  enforced  by  athgahail.  The  brehons  reduced 
all  liabilities  of  whatsoever  origin  to  material  value  to  be  re- 


LAW  IN  IRE;I.AND 


63 


covered  by  this  means.  Hence  its  great  importance,  the  vast 
amount  of  space  devoted  to  it  in  the  laws,  and  the  fact  that 
the  law  of  distress  deals  incidentally  with  every  other  branch 
of  law  and  reveals  best  the  customs,  habits,  and  character  of 
the  people.  A  claimant  in  a  civil  case  might  either  summon  his 
debtor  before  a  brehon,  get  a  judgment,  and  seize  the  amount 
adjudged,  or,  by  distraining  first  at  his  own  risk,  force  the 
defendant  either  to  pay  or  stop  the  seizure  by  submitting  the 
matter  in  dispute  to  trial  before  a  brehon,  whom  he  then  could 
choose.  There  was  no  officer  corresponding  to  a  sheriff  to 
distrain  and  realize  the  amount  adjudged ;  the  person  entitled 
had  to  do  it  himself,  accompanied  by  a  law-agent  and  wit- 
nesses, after,  in  "distress  with  time",  elaborate  notices  at 
intervals  of  time  sufficient  to  allow  the  defendant  to  consider 
his  position  and  find  means  of  satisfying  the  claim  if  he  could. 
In  a  proper  case  his  hands  were  strengthened  by  very  explicit 
provisions  of  the  law.  "If  a  man  who  is  sued  evades  justice, 
knowing  the  debt  to  be  due  of  him,  double  the  debt  is  payable 
by  him."  In  urgent  cases  "immediate  distress"  was  allowed. 
In  either  case  the  property  seized — usually  cattle — was  not 
taken  to  the  plaintiff's  home,  but  put  into  a  pound,  and  by 
similar  easy  stages  became  his  property  to  the  amount  of  the 
debt.  The  costs  were  paid  out  of  what  remained,  and  any  ulti- 
mate remainder  was  returned.  On  a  fiiidir  (foodyir)  =  serf 
or  other  unfree  person  resident  in  the  territory  incurring  lia- 
bility to  a  clansman,  the  latter  might  proceed  against  the  flaith 
on  whose  land  the  defendant  lived,  or  might  seize  immediately 
any  property  the  defendant  owned,  and  if  he  owned  none, 
might  seize  him  and  make  him  work  off  the  debt  in  slavery. 

Seizure  of  property  of  a  person  of  higher  rank  than  the 
plaintiff  had  to  be  preceded  by  troscead  (truscah)  =  fasting 
upon  him.  This  consisted  in  waiting  at  the  door  of  the  de- 
fendant's residence  without  food  until  the  debt  was  paid  or  a 
pledge  given.  The  laws  contained  no  process  more  strongly 
enforced  than  this.  A  defendant  who  allowed  a  plaintiff  prop- 
erly fasting  to  die  of  hunger  was  held  by  law  and  by  public 
opinion  guilty  of  murder,  and  completely  lost  his  eineachlann. 
Both  text  and  commentary  declare  that  whoever  refuses  to 
cede  a  just  demand  when  fasted  upon  shall  pay  double  that 


64 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


amount.  If  the  faster,  having  accepted  a  pledge,  did  not  in 
due  course  receive  satisfaction  of  his  claim,  he  forthwith  dis- 
trained, taking  and  keeping  double  the  amount  of  the  debt. 
The  law  did  not  allow  those  whom  it  at  first  respected  to  trifle 
with  justice. 

Troscead  is  believed  to  have  been  of  druidical  origin,  and 
it  retained  throughout,  even  in  Christian  times,  a  sort  of  super- 
natural significance.  Whoever  disregarded  it  became  an  out- 
cast and  incurred  risks  and  dangers  too  grave  to  be  lightly- 
faced.  Besides  being  a  legal  process,  it  was  resorted  to  as  a 
species  of  elaborate  prayer,  or  curse, — a  kind  of  magic  for 
achieving  some  difficult  purpose.  This  mysterious  character 
enhanced  its  value  in  a  legal  system  deficient  in  executive 
power. 

NON-CITIZENS.  From  what  precedes  it  will  be  under- 
stood that  there  were  in  ancient  Ireland  from  prehistoric 
times  people  not  comprised  in  the  clan  organization,  and  there- 
fore not  enjoying  its  rights  and  advantages  or  entitled  to  any 
of  its  land,  some  of  whom  were  otherwise  free  within  certain 
areas,  while  some  were  serfs  and  some  slaves.^  Those  out- 
siders are  conjectured  to  have  originated  in  the  earlier  colo- 
nists subdued  by  the  Milesians  and  reduced  to  an  inferior  con- 
dition. But  the  distinction  did  not  wholly  follow  racial  lines. 
Persons  of  pre-Milesian  race  are  known  to  have  risen  to  emi- 
nence, while  Milesians  are  known  to  have  sunk,  from  crime 
or  other  causes,  to  the  lowest  rank  of  the  unfree.  Here  and 
there  a  daer-tiiath  =  "bond  community",  of  an  earlier  race 
held  together  down  to  the  Middle  Ages  in  districts  in  which 
conquest  had  left  them  and  to  which  they  were  restricted. 
Beyond  that  restriction,  exclusion  from  the  clan  and  its  power, 
some  peculiarities  of  dialect,  dress,  and  manners,  and  a  tradi- 
tion of  inferiority  such  as  still  exists  in  certain  parishes,  they 
were  not  molested,  provided  they  paid  tribute,  which  may  have 
been  heavy. 

There  were  also  b ot Jiachs  ==  cotUtvs,  and  sen-cleithes  == 
old  adherents  of  a  flaith,  accustomed  to  serv^e  him  and  obtain 
benefits  from  him.  If  they  had  resided  in  the  territory  for 
three  generations,  and  been  industrious,  thrifty,  and  orderly, 
on  a  few  of  them  joining  their  property  together  to  the  num- 


LAW  IN  IRELAND 


65 


ber  of  one  hundred  head  of  cattle,  they  could  emancipate  them- 
selves by  appointing  a  flaithfine  and  getting  admitted  to  the 
clan.  Till  this  was  done,  they  could  neither  sue  nor  defend 
nor  inherit,  and  the  flaith  was  answerable  for  their  conduct. 

There  being  no  prisons  or  convict  settlements,  any  person  of 
whatever  race  convicted  of  grave  crime,  or  of  cowardice  on 
the  field  of  battle,  and  unable  to  pay  the  fines  imposed,  cap- 
tives taken  in  foreign  wars,  fugitives  from  other  clans,  and 
tramps,  fell  into  the  lowest  ranks  of  the  fuidre  =  "serfs."  It 
was  as  a  captive  that  Saint  Patrick  was  brought  in  his  youth 
to  Ireland.  The  law  allowed,  rather  than  entitled,  a  flaith  to 
keep  unfree  people  for  servile  occupations  and  the  perform- 
ance of  unskilled  labor  for  the  public  benefit.  In  reality  they 
Avorked  for  his  personal  profit,  oftentimes  at  the  expense  of 
the  clan.  They  lived  on  his  land,  and  he  was  responsible  for 
their  conduct.  By  analogy,  the  distinctions  saer  and  daer  were 
recognized  among  them,  according  to  origin,  character,  and 
means.  Where  these  elements  continued  to  be  favorable  for 
three  generations,  progress  upward  was  made;  and  ultimately 
a  number  of  them  could  club  together,  appoint  a  flaithfine,  and 
apply  to  be  admitted  to  the  clan. 

A  mog  vc^as  a  slave  in  the  strict  sense,  usually  purchased  as 
such  from  abroad,  and  legally  and  socially  lower  than  the 
lowest  fuidir.  Giraldus  Cambrensis,  writing  towards  the  close 
of  the  twelfth  century,  tells  us  that  English  parents  then  fre- 
quently sold  their  surplus  children  and  other  persons  to  the 
Irish  as  slaves.  The  Church  repeatedly  intervened  for  the 
release  of  captives  and  mitigation  of  their  condition.  The 
whole  institution  of  slavery  was  strongly  condemned  as  un- 
christian by  the  Synod  held  in  Armagh  in  1171. 

CRIMINAL  LAW.  Thous^h  there  are  numerous  laws  re- 
lating to  crime,  to  be  found  chiefly  in  the  Book  of  Aicill,  crimi- 
nal law  in  the  sense  of  a  code  of  punishment  there  was  none. 
The  law  took  cognizance  of  crime  and  wrong  of  every  descrip- 
tion against  person,  character,  and  property;  and  its  function 
was  to  prevent  and  restrict  crime,  and  when  committed  to  de- 
termine, according  to  the  facts  of  the  case  and  the  respective 
ranks  of  the  parties,  the  value  of  the  compensation  or  repara- 
tion that  should  be  made.    It  treated  crime  as  a  mode  of 


66 


THE  GLORIES  OE  IRELAND 


incurring  liability;  entitled  the  sufferer,  or,  if  he  was  mur- 
dered, his  fine,  to  bring  the  matter  before  a  brehon,  who,  on 
hearing  the  case,  made  the  complicated  calculations  and  ad- 
justments rendered  necessary  by  the  facts  proved  and  by  the 
grades  to  which  the  respective  parties  belonged,  arrived  at  and 
gave  judgment  for  the  amount  of  the  compensation,  armed 
with  which  judgment,  the  plaintiff  could  immediately  distrain 
for  that  amount  the  property  of  the  criminal,  and,  in  his  de- 
fault, that  of  his  fine.  The  fine  could  escape  part  of  its  liabil- 
ity by  arresting  and  giving  up  the  convict,  or  by  expelling  him 
and  giving  substantial  security  against  his  future  misdeeds. 

From  the  number  of  elements  that  entered  into  the  calcula- 
tion of  a  fine,  it  necessarily  resulted  that  like  fines  by  no 
means  followed  like  crimes.  Fines,  like  all  other  payments, 
were  adjudged  and  paid  in  kind,  being,  in  some  cases  of  the 
destruction  of  property,  generic — a  quantity  of  that  kind  of 
property.  Large  fines  were  usually  adjudged  to  be  paid  in 
three  specie's,  one-third  in  each,  the  plaintiff  taking  care  to 
inform  correctly  the  brehon  of  the  kinds  of  property  the  de- 
fendant possessed,  because  he  could  seize  only  that  named,  and 
if  the  defendant  did  not^possess  it,  the  judgment  was  **a  blind 
nut."  Crime  against  the  State  or  community,  such  as  wilful 
disturbance  of  an  assembly,  was  punished  severely.  These 
were  the  only  cases  to  which  the  law  attached  a  sentence  of 
death  or  other  corporal  punishment.  For  nothing  whatsoever 
between  parties  did  the  law  recognize  any  duty  of  revenge, 
retaliation,  or  the  infliction  of  personal  punishment,  but  only 
the  payment  of  compensation.  Personal  punishment  was  re- 
garded as  the  commission  of  a  second  crime  on  account  of  a 
first.  There  was  no  duty  to  do  this ;  but  the  right  to  do  it 
was  tacitly  recognized  if  a  criminal  resisted  or  evaded  payment 
of  an  adjudged  compensation.  Criminal  were  distinguished 
from  civil  cases  only  by  the  moral  element,  the  sufferer's  right 
in  all  cases  to  choose  a  brehon,  the  loss  of  elneachlann,  partial 
or  whole  according  to  the  magnitude  of  the  crime,  the  elements 
used  in  calculating  the  amount  of  fine,  and  the  technical  terms 
employed.  Dire  (djeereh)  was  a  general  name  for  a  fine,  and 
there  were  specific  names  for  classes  of  fines.  Eric  =  repara- 
tion, redemption,  was  the  fine  for  killing  a  human  being,  the 


LAW  IN  IRELAND 


67 


amount  being  affected  by  the  distinction  between  murder  and 
manslaughter  and  by  other  circumstances ;  but  in  no  case  was 
a  violent  death,  however  innocent,  allowed  to  pass  without 
reparation  being  made.  A  fine  was  awarded  out  of  the  prop- 
erty of  the  convict  or  of  his  fine  to  the  fine  of  the  person  slain, 
in  the  proportions  in  which  they  were  entitled  to  inherit  his 
property,  that  being  also  according  to  their  degrees  of  kinship 
and  the  degrees  in  which  they  were  really  sufferers.  This 
gave  every  clan  and  every  clansman,  in  addition  to  their  moral 
interest,  a  direct  monetary  interest  in  the  prevention  and  sup- 
pression of  crime.  Hence  the  whole  public  feeling  of  the 
country  was  entirely  in  support  of  the  law,  the  honor  and 
interest  of  community  and  individual  being  involved  in  its 
maintenance.  The  injured  person  or  fine,  if  unable  to  recover 
the  fine,  might,  in  capital  cases,  seize  and  enslave,  or  even  kill, 
the  convict.  Probably  restrained  by  the  fact  that,  there  being 
no  officers  of  criminal  law,  they  had  to  inflict  punishment 
themselves,  they  sometimes  imprisoned  a  convict  in  a  small 
island,  or  sent  him  adrift  on  the  sea  in  a  currach  or  boat  of 
hide..  Law  supported  by  public  opinion,  powerful  because  so 
inspired,  powerful  because  unanimous,  was  difficult  to  evade 
or  resist.  It  so  strongly  armed  an  injured  person,  'and  so 
utterly  paralyzed  a  criminal,  that  escape  from  justice  was 
hardly  possible.  The  only  way  in  which  it  was  possible  was 
by  flight,  leaving  all  one's  property  behind,  and  sinking  into 
slavery  in  a  strange  place ;  and  this  in  effect  was  a  severe 
punishment  rather  than  an  escape. 

FOREIGN  LAW.  The  Danes  and  other  Norsemen  were 
the  buccaneers  of  northwestern  Europe  from  the  eighth  to 
the  eleventh  century.  They  conquered  and  settled  perma- 
nently in  Neustria,  from  them  called  Normandy,  and  con- 
quered and  ruled  for  a  considerable  time  England  and  part  of 
Scotland  and  the  Isles.  In  Ireland  they  were  little  more  than 
marauders,  having  permanent  colonies  only  round  the  coast ;  al- 
ways subject,  nominally  at  least,  to  the  ard-ri  or  to  the  local 
chief ;  paying  him  tribute  when  he  was  strong,  raiding  his  terri- 
tory when  he  was  weak,  and  fomenting  recurrent  disorder 
highly  prejudicial  to  law,  religion,  and  civilization.  They  never 
made  any  pretence  of  extending  their  laws  to  Ireland,  and  their 


(6) 


68 


THE  GW)RIES  OF  IRELAND 


attempt  to  conquer  the  country  was  finally  frustrated  at  Clon- 
tarf  in  1014. 

The  Anglo-Norman  invaders  also  seized  the  seaports.  The 
earlier  of  them  who  went  inland  partially  adopted  in  the 
second  generation  the  Gaelic  language,  laws,  and  customs;  as 
many  non-Celtic  Lowlanders  of  Scotland  about  the  same 
period  adopted  the  Gaelic  language,  laws,  and  customs  of  the 
Highlanders.  Hence  they  did  not  make  much  impression  on 
the  Gaelic  system,  beyond  the  disintegrating  effect  of  their 
imperfect  adoption  of  it. 

Into  the  eastern  parts  of  Ireland,  however,  a  fresh  stream 
of  English  adventurers  continued  to  flow,  as  aggressive  and 
covetous  as  their  means  and  prudence  permitted;  calling  so 
much  of  the  country  as  they  were  able  to  wrench  from  the 
Irish  "the  English  Pale",  which  fluctuated  in  extent  with  their 
fortunes ;  and,  when  compelled  to  pay  tribute  to  Irish  chiefs, 
calling  it  "black  rent",  to  indicate  how  they  regarded  it.  Their 
greatest  difficulty  was  to  counteract  the  tendency  of  the  earHer 
colonists  to  become  Hibernicized — a  most  unwilling  tribute  to 
the  superiority  of  the  Irish  race.  They,  and  still  more  those 
in  England  who  supported  them,  knew  nothing  of  the  Irish 
language,  laws,  and  institutions  but  that  they  should  all  be 
impartially  hated,  uprooted,  and  supplanted  by  English  people 
and  everything  English  as  soon  as  means  enabled  this  to  be 
done.  This  was  the  amiable  purpose  of  the  pompously-named 
"Statute  of  Kilkenny",  passed  by  about  a  score  of  these  colo- 
nists in  13G7.  Presuming  to  speak  in  the  name  of  Ireland,  the 
statute  prohibited  the  English  colonists  from  becoming  Irish 
in  the  numerous  ways  they  were  accustomed  to  do,  and  ex- 
cluded all  Irish  priests  from  preferment  in  the  Church,  partly 
because  their  superior  virtue  would  by  contrast  amount  to  a 
censure.  The  purpose  was  not  completely  successful  even 
within  the  Pale.  Outside  that  precinct,  the  mass  of  the  Irish 
were  wholly  unconscious  of  the  existence  of  the  "Statute  of 
Kilkenny."  But  expressing,  as  the  statute  did  correctly,  the 
views  of  fresh  adventurers,  it  became,  in  arrogance  and  in  the 
pretension  to  speak  for  the  whole  of  Ireland,  a  model  for  their 
future  legislation  and  policy. 


LAW  IN  IRELAND 


69 


Under  King  Henry  VI.  of  England,  Richard,  Duke  of  York, 
being  Lord  Deputy,  the  ParHament  of  the  Pale,  assembled  in 
Dublin,  repudiated  the  authority  of  the  English  Parliament  in 
Ireland,  established  a  mint,  and  assumed  an  attitude  of  almost 
complete  independence.  On  the  other  hand,  in  1494,  under 
Henry  VII.,  the  Parliament  of  the  Pale,  assembled  at  Drog- 
heda,  passed  Poyning's  Act,  extending  all  English  laws  to 
Ireland  and  subjecting  all  laws  passed  in  Ireland  to  revision 
by  the  English  Council.  This,  extended  to  the  whole  of  Ire- 
land as  English  power  extended,  remained  in  force  until  1782. 
Henry  VIII.  was  the  first  English  sovereign  to  take  practical 
measures  for  the  pacific  and  diplomatic  conquest  of  the  whole 
of  Ireland  and  the  substitution  of  English  for  Irish  institu- 
tions and  methods.  His  daughter,  Queen  Elizabeth,  continued 
and  completed  the  conquest ;  but  it  was  by  drenching  the  coun- 
try in  blood,  by  more  than  decimating  the  Irish  people,  and  by 
reducing  the  remnant  to  something  like  the  condition  of  the 
ancient  fitidre.  Her  policy  prepared  the  ground  for  her  suc- 
cessor, James  I.,  to  exterminate  the  Irish  from  large  tracts,  in 
which  he  planted  Englishmen  and  Scotchmen,  and  to  extend 
all  English  laws  to  Ireland  and  abolish  all  other  laws.  James's 
English  attorney-general  in  Ireland,  Sir  John  Davies,  in  his 
work,  A  Discoverie  of  the  True  Causes,  etc.,  says : 

"For  there  is  no  nation  of  people  under  the  sunne  that  doth 
love  equall  and  indifferent  [=  impartial]  justice  better  than 
the  Irish;  or  will  rest  better  satisfied  with  the  execution 
thereof,  although  it  bee  against  themselves;  so  as  they  may 
have  the  protection  and  benefit  of  the  law,  when  uppon  just 
cause  they  do  desire  it." 

The  ancient  Irish  loved  their  laws  and  took  pride  in  obeying 
and  enforcing  them.  The  different  attitude  of  the  modern 
Irish  towards  foreign  laws  and  administration  is  amply  ex- 
plained by  the  morally  indefensible  character  of  those  laws 
and  that  administration,  to  be  read  in  English  statutes  and 
ordinances  and  in  the  history  of  English  rule  in  Ireland — a 
subject  too  vast  and  harrowing,  and  in  every  sense  foreign  to 
what  has  gone  before,  to  be  entered  upon  here.  Though  the 
Parliament  of  1782-1800  was  little  more  than  a  Pale  Parlia- 


7( 


THE  GIvORIES  OF  IRELAND 


menty  in  which  the  mass  of  the  Irish  people  had  no  representa- 
tion whatever,  one  of  its  Acts,  to  its  credit  be  it  said,  was  an 
attempt  to  mitigate  the  Penal  Laws  and  emancipate  the  op- 
pressed Gaelic  and  Catholic  population  of  Ireland.  With  the 
partial  exception  of  that  brief  interval,  law  in  Ireland  has, 
during  the  last  360  years,  meant  English  laws  specially  enacted 
for  the  destruction  of  any  Irish  trade  or  industry  that  entered 
into  competition  with  a  corresponding  English  trade  or  indus- 
try. In  later  times  those  crude  barbarities  have  been  gradually 
superseded  by  the  more  defensible  laws  now  in  force  in  Ire- 
land, all  of  which  can  be  studied  in  statutes  passed  by  the 
Parliament,  since  the  Union  with  Scotland,  called  British. 

References  : 

Pending  the  desirable  work  of  a  more  competent  Brehon  Law 
Commission  and  translators,  the  subject  must  be  .studied  in  the  six 
voliunes  of  Ancient  Laws  of  Ireland,  produced  by  the  first  Commis- 
sion, from  1865  to  1901,  ignoring  the  long  introductions  and  many 
of  the  notes.  Whitley  Stokes:  Criticism  of  Atkinson's  Glossary 
(London,  1903);  R.  Dareste:  Etudes  d'histoire  de  droit  (Paris, 
1889)  ;  d'Arbois  de  Jubainville  and  Paul  Collinet:  Etudes  sur  le  droit 
celtique,  2  vols.  (Paris,  1895);  Joyce:  Social  History  of  Ancient 
Ireland,  2  vols.  (London,  1913);  Laurence  Ginnell :  The  Brehon 
Laws  (London,  1894). 


IRISH  MUSIC 

By  W.  H.  Grattan  Flood,  Mus.  D.,  M.  R.  I.  A.,  K.  S.  G. 

PERHAPS  nothing  so  strikingly  brings  home  the  associa- 
tion of  Ireland  with  music  as  the  fact  that  the  harp  is 
emblazoned  on  the  national  arms.  Ireland,  "the  mother  of 
sweet  singers",  as  Pope  writes ;  Ireland,  "where",  according  to 
St.  Columcille,  "the  clerics  sing  like  the  birds";  Ireland  can 
proudly  point  to  a  musical  history  of  over  2,000  years.  The 
Milesians,  the  De  Dananns,  and  other  pre-Christian  colonists 
were  musical.  Hecataeus  (B.  C.  540-475)  describes  the  Celts 
of  Ireland  as  singing  songs  to  the  harp  in  praise  of  Apollo, 
and  Aethicus  of  Istria,  a  Christian  philosopher  of  the  early 
fourth  century,  describes  the  culture  of  the  Irish.  Certain  it 
is  that,  even  before  the  coming  of  St.  Patrick,  the  Irish  were 
a  highly  cultured  nation,  and  the  national  Apostle  utilized 
music  and  song  in  his  work  of  conversion.  In  the  early  Lives 
of  the  Irish  Saints  musical  references  abound,  and  the  Irish 
school  of  music  attracted  foreign  scholars  from  the  sixth  to 
the  ninth  century. 

Hymnologists  are  familiar  with  the  hymns  written  by  early 
Irish  saints  and  laics,  e.  g.,  St.  Sechnall,  St.  Columcille,  St. , 
Molaise,  St.  Cuchuimne,  St.  Columbanus,  St.  Ultan,  St.  Col- 
man,  St.  Cummain,  St.  Aengus,  Dungal,  Sedulius,  Moengal, 
and  others.  Who  has  not  heard  of  the  great  music  school  of 
San  Gallen,  founded  by  St.  Gall,  "the  wonder  and  de- 
light of  Europe,"  whither  flocked  German  students?  One 
of  the  Irish  monks,  Tuathal  (Tutilo),  composed  numerous 
sacred  pieces,  including  the  famous  farced  Kyrie,  "Fons  boni- 
tatis",  included  in  the  Vatican  edition  of  the  Kyriale  (1906). 
Not  alone  did  Irish  monks  propagate  sacred  and  secular  music 
throughout  France,  Italy,  Switzerland,  Austria,  Germany,  and 
the  far  North,  but  they  made  their  influence  felt  in  Lindis- 
farne,  Malmesbury,  Glastonbury,  and  other  cities  in  England, 
as  also  in  Scotland.  St.  Aldhelm,  one  of  the  pupils  of  St. 
Maeldubh.  tells  us  that  at  the  close  of  the  seventh  century, 
"Ireland,  synonymous  with  learning,  literally  blazed  like  the 
stars  of  the  firmament  with  the  glory  of  her  scholars." 


72 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


During  the  ninth  century  we  meet  with  twelve  different 
forms  of  instruments  in  use  by  the  Irish,  namely: — the  Cruit 
and  Clairseach  (small  and  large  harp) ;  Timpan  (Rotta  or 
bowed  cruit)  ;  Buinne  (oboe  or  bassoon)  ;  Bennbuabhal  and 
Com  (horn)  ;  Cuisleanna  and  Piob  (bagpipes)  ;  Feadan  (flute 
or  fife)  ;  Guthhuinne  (bass  horn)  ;  Stoc  and  Sturgan  (trum- 
pet) ;  Pipai  (single  and  double  pipes)  ;  Craoibh  cuil  and  Crann 
cuU  (c\TnbaIimi)  ;  Cnamha  (castanet)  ;  and  F'tdU  (fiddle).  The 
so-called  "Brian  Boru's  Harp"  really  dates  from  the  thirteenth 
century,  and  is  now  in  Trinity  Collie,  Dublin,  but  there  are 
nimierous  sculptured  harps  of  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries  on 
the  crosses  at  Graig,  Ullard,  Clonmacnois,  Durrow,  and  Monas- 
terboice. 

Donnchadh,  an  Irish  bishop  of  the  ninth  centurj-,  who  died 
as  abbot  of  St.  Remigius,  wrote  a  commentary'  on  Martianus 
Capella,  a  well-known  musical  text  book.  Towering  above  all 
his  fellows,  John  Scotus  Erigena,  in  867,  wrote  a  tract  De 
Dk'isione  Naturae,  in  which  he  expoimds  organum  or  discant, 
nearly  a  hundred  years  before  the  appearance  of  the  Scholia 
Enchiriadis  and  the  Musica  Enchiriadis.  He  also  wrote  a  com- 
mentary on  Martianus  Capella,  now  in  a  Paris  MS.  of  the 
ninth  centur\-. 

The  eulogy  of  Giraldus  Cambrensis,  or  Gerald  Barry,  who 
came  to  Ireland  in  11S3,  on  Irish  harpers  and  minstrels  is  too 
well  known  to  be  repeated,  but  Brompton  and  John  of  Salis- 
bury are  equally  enthusiastic.  Ground  bass,  or  pedal  point, 
and  singing  in  parts,  as  well  as  bands  of  harpers  and  pipers, 
were  in  vogue  in  Ireland  before  the  coming  of  the  English. 
Dante,  quoted  by  Galilei,  testifies  to  the  fact  that  Italy  received 
the  harp  from  Ireland :  and,  it  may  be  added,  the  Irish  harp 
suggested  the  pianoforte.  In  the  Anglo-Norman  ballad,  "The 
Entrenchment  of  New  Ross" — in  1265 — allusion  is  made  to 
pipes  and  flutes,  and  carols  and  dancing.  Another  poem,  dating 
from  about  1320,  refers  to  Irish  dances  in  a  flattering  manner. 

John  Garland  (1190-1264)  wrote  a  treatise  on  Organum, 
and  outlined  a  scheme  of  dividing  the  inter\-al.  which  developed 
into  ornamentation,  passing  notes,  and  grace  notes.  The  Dub- 
lin Troper  of  the  thirteenth  century  has  a  number  of  farced 
Kyries  and  Glorias,  also  a  collection  of  Sequences.   A  Dublin 


IRISH  MUSIC 


73 


Processionale  of  the  fourteenth  century  contains  the  most 
elaborate  form  of  the  Officium  Sepulchri,  with  musical  nota- 
tion on  a  four-line  stave — the  foundation  of  the  Miracle  Play 
of  the  Resurrection.  Another  Dublin  Troper  dates  from  1360 
and  was  used  in  St.  Patrick's  Cathedral.  It  contains  the  hymn, 
"Angelus  ad  Virginem",  alluded  to  by  Chaucer.  The  Christ 
Church  Psaltery,  about  1370,  has  musical  notation  and  is  ex- 
quisitely illuminated.  Lionel  Power,  an  Anglo-Irishman,  wrote 
the  first  English  treatise  on  music  in  1395.  Exactly  a  century 
later,  in  1495,  a  music  school  was  founded  in  Christ  Church 
Cathedral,  Dublin. 

The  Irish  Annals  of  the  thirteenth  to  the  fifteenth  century 
have  numerous  references  to  distinguished  harpers  and  singers, 
and  there  are  still  sung  many  beautiful  airs  of  this  period, 
including  "The  Coulin"  and  "Eibhlin  a  ruin."  John  Lawless 
was  a  famous  Irish  organ-builder  of  the  second  half  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  and  his  successor,  James  Dempsey,  built 
many  fine  organs  between  the  years  1530  and  1565. 

Notwithstanding  the  many  penal  enactments  against  Irish 
minstrels,  all  the  great  Anglo-Irish  nobles  of  the  Pale  retained 
an  Irish  harper  and  piper  in  their  service.  Under  date  of 
1480,  we  find  Chief  Justice  Bermingham  having  an  Irish  harper 
to  teach  his  family,  as  also  "to  harp  and  to  dance."  A  cen- 
tury later  "Blind  Cruise,  the  harper" — Richard  Cruise — com- 
posed a  lamentation  song  on  the  fall  of  the  Baron  of  Slane, 
the  air  of  which  is  still  popular.  It  is  to  the  credit  of  the 
Irishman,  William  Bathe  (who  subsequently  became  a  Jesuit), 
that  he  wrote  the  first  printed  English  treatise  on  music,  pub- 
lished in  1584 — thus  ante-dating  by  thirteen  years  Morley's 
work.  Bathe  wrote  a  second  musical  treatise  in  1587,  and  he 
was  the  first  to  call  measures  by  the  name  of  bars.  He  also 
formulated  methods  of  transposition  and  sight  reading  that 
may  still  be  studied  with  profit. 

Thomas  Campion,  the  poet  and  composer,  was  bom  in  Dub- 
lin in  1567,  but  spent  nearly  all  his  life  in  England.  Other 
Irish  composers,  to  mention  only  the  most  distinguished,  were 
William  Costello  (madrigalist),  Richard  Gillie,  Edward  Sher- 
gold,  and  Walter  Kennedy.  Strange  as  it  may  seem,  Queen 
Elizabeth  retained  in  her  service  an  Irish  hirper,  Cormac  Mac- 


74 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


Dermot,  from  1591  to  1603,  and  on  the  death  of  the  queen  he 
was  given  an  annual  pension  of  £46  10s.  lOd. — nearly  £500 
a  year  of  our  present  money. 

Shakespeare  refers  to  eleven  Irish  tunes,  of  which  the 
famous  "Callino  Casturame"  {Cailin  og  a  stuir  me)  is  still 
fresh.  Irish  dances  were  extremely  popular  at  the  English 
court  from  1600  to  1603  and  were  introduced  into  the  Masks. 
Shakespeare's  "intrinsic  friend,"  John  Dowland  of  Dublin, 
was  one  of  the  greatest  lutenists  in  Europe  from  1590  to  1626. 
In  the  dedication  of  a  song  "to  my  loving  countryman,  Mr. 
John  Foster  the  Younger,  merchant  of  Dublin  in  Ireland," 
Dowland  sufficiently  indicates  his  nationality,  and  his  compo- 
sitions betray  all  the  charm  and  grace  of  Irish  melody.  It  is 
of  interest  to  add  that  the  earliest  printed  "Irish  Dance"  is  in 
Parthenia  Inviolata,  of  which  work,  published  in  1613-4,  there 
is  only  one  copy  known — now  in  the  New  York  Public  Library. 
From  1600-1602,  Charles  O'Reilly  was  harpist  to  the  court  of 
Denmark  at  200  thalers  a  year.  His  successor  was  Donal 
Diihh  ("the  black")  O'Cahill  (1602-1610),  who  followed  Anne 
of  Denmark  to  the  English  court.  Walter  Quin  of  Dublin  was 
music  master  to  King  James's  eldest  son.  Prince  Henry,  from 
1608  to  1611.  Other  noted  harpers  of  the  first  half  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  are :  Rory  dall  ("the  blind")  O'Cahan ;  Nicholas 
dall  Pierce;  Tadhg  MacRory;  John,  Rory,  and  Henry  Scott; 
Owen  MacKeenan ;  Owen  MacDermot ;  Tadhg  O'Coffey ;  and 
Father  Robert  Nugent,  S.  J.  Darby  Scott  was  harper  to  the 
Danish  Court  from  1621  till  his  death,  at  Copenhagen,  on  De- 
cember 19,  1634.  Pierce  Ferriter,  a  "gentleman  harper",  was 
executed  at  Killarney  in  1652.  Myles  O'Reilly  and  the  two 
Connellans  were  famous  harpers  between  the  years  1660-1680. 
Evelyn,  the  English  diarist,  in  1668,  praises  the  excellent  per- 
formance on  the  harp  of  Sir  Edward  Sutton,  who,  in  the  fol- 
lowing year,  was  granted  by  King  Charles  II.  the  lands  of 
Confey,  Co.  Kildare.  Two  beautiful  harps  of  this  period 
are  still  preserved— the  Fitzgerald  Harp  and  the  Fogarty 
Harp. 

There  are  many  exquisite  airs  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
some  of  which  have  been  incorporated  in  Moore's  Irish  Melo- 
dies.   The  titles  of  several  airs  of  this  epoch  are  of  historical 


IRISH  MUSIC 


75 


interest,  e.  g.,  ''Sarsfield's  Lament,"  "Lament  for  Owen  Roe 
O'Neill,"  "MacAlistrum's  March,"  "Ned  of  the  Hill,"  "The 
Breach  of  Aughrim,"  "Limerick's  Lamentation,"  "Lilli- 
burlero,"  "Ballinamona,"  "The  Boyne  Water,"  and  "The  Wild 
Geese."  Irish  tunes  abound  in  the  various  editions  of  Play- 
ford's  Country  Dances  from  1651  to  1720. 

Turlogh  O'Carolan  (1670-1738),  who  has  been  styled  "the 
last  of  the  Irish  bards",  wrote  and  composed  innumerable 
songs,  also  Planxties,  Plearacas,  and  Lamentations.  It  is  here 
merely  necessary  to  note  that  twenty-six  of  O'Carolan's  airs 
are  included  in  Moore's  Irish  Melodies,  although  his  claim  to 
them  has  only  recently  been  proved  by  the  present  writer. 
Goldsmith's  eulogy  of  O'Carolan  is  well  known. 

The  Jacobite  period  from  1710  to  1750  considerably  in- 
fluenced Irish  minstrelsy,  and  some  of  the  most  delightful  airs 
were  adapted  to  Jacobite  lyrics.  "Seaghan  buidhe,"  "An  Sean 
duine,"  "Lament  for  Kilcash,"  "Ormonde's  Lament,"  "Morin 
ni  Chullenain,"  "All  the  Way  to  Galway"  (the  air  of  "Yankee 
Doodle"),  "Caitlin  ni  Houlihan,"  "Balance  a  straw"  ("The 
Wearing  of  the  Green"),  "St.  Patrick's  Day,"  "Plancam  Peirb- 
hig,"  are  amongst  the  tunes  in  vogue  at  this  period. 

As  early  as  1685  the  Hibernian  Catch  Club  was  established 
and  still  flourishes.  Cecilian  celebrations  were  held  from  1727 
to  1732,  and  a  Dublin  Academy  of  Music  was  founded  in  1728. 
The  Charitable  and  Musical  Society  (founded  in  1723)  built 
the  Fishamble  Street  Music  Hall  in  1741,  and  assisted  at  the 
first  performance  of  The  Messiah,  conducted  by  Handel  him- 
self, on  13th  April,  1742.  Kitty  Clive,  Peg  Woffington,  and 
Daniel  Sullivan  were  noted  Irish  singers  of  this  epoch,  while 
John  Clegg,  Dr.  Murphy,  and  Burke  Thumoth  were  famous 
instrumentalists.  In  1741  Richard  Pockrich  invented  the  Mu- 
sical Glasses,  for  which  Gluck  wrote  some  pieces  :  it  was  after- 
wards improved  by  Benjamin  Franklin.  On  the  continent, 
Henry  Madden  was  music  director  of  the  Chapel  Royal  at 
Versailles  in  1744  (in  succession  to  Campra),  and  was  also 
canon  of  St.  Quentin. 

In  1764  the  Earl  of  Mornington,  Mus.  D.,  was  appointed 
first  professor  of  music  in  Dublin  University.  A  few  years 
later  Charles  Clagget  invented  the  valve-horn.   Michael  Kelly 


76 


the:  GIvORIES  of  IRELAND 


of  Dublin  was  specially  selected  by  Mozart  to  create  the  parts 
of  Basilio  and  Don  Curzio  at  the  first  performance  of  the  opera 
of  Figaro,  on  May  1st,  1786.  Kane  O'Hara,  Samuel  Lee, 
Owenson,  Neale,  Baron  Dillon,  Dr.  Doyle,  T.  A.  Geary, 
Mahon,  and  the  Earl  of  Westmeath  were  distinguished  musi- 
cians— while  the  fame  of  Carter,  Mountain,  Moorehead,  and 
Dr.  Cogan  was  not  confined  to  Ireland. 

Among  native  minstrels,  Jerome  Duigenan,  Dominic  Mon- 
gan,  Denis  Hempson,  Charles  Byrne,  James  Duncan,  Arthur 
Victory,  and  Arthur  O'Neill  were  celebrated  as  harpers.  The 
Belfast  meeting  of  1792  revived  the  vogue  of  the  national 
instrument.  Nor  was  the  bagpipe  neglected.  Even  in  America, 
in  1778,  Lord  Rawdon  had  a  band  of  pipers,  with  Barney 
Thomson  as  Pipe  Major.  At  home.  Sterling,  Jackson,  Mac- 
Donnell,  Moorehead,  Kennedy,  and  Macklin  sustained  the 
reputation  of  this  ancient  instrument. 

Ere  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  John  Field  of  Dub- 
lin was  a  distinguished  pianist.  He  subsequently  (1814)  in- 
vented the  nocturne,  developed  by  Chopin.  Sir  John  Steven- 
son (the  arranger  of  the  Irish  Melodies),  Tom  Cooke,  William 
Southwell  (inventor  of  the  damper  action  for  pianofortes)^ 
Henry  Mountain,  Andrew  Ashe  (flautist),  Barton,  Rooke, 
and  Bunting  were  world-famed. 

Among  the  Irish  musicians  of  the  last  century  the  following 
names  are  typical:  Thomas  Moore,  J.  A.  Wade,  Balfe  {Bohe- 
mian Girl),  Wallace  (Maritana),  Osborne,  Sir  Frederick 
Ouseley,  Scotson  Clarke,  Howard  Glover,  Homcastle,  J.  W. 
Glover,  Sir  Robert  Stewart,  Augusta  Holmes,  R.  M.  Levey, 
Joseph  Robinson,  Forde,  Lover,  Kearns,  Allen,  Barker,  Tor- 
rance, Molloy,  Guernsey,  Gilmore,  Thunder,  Harvey,  Good- 
man, Sir  Arthur  Sullivan  (Pinafore,  Mikado),  Miss  Davis, 
Halliday  (inventor  of  the  Kent  bugle),  Latham,  Duggan,  Gas- 
kin,  Lacy,  Pontet  (Piccolomini),  Hudson,  Pigot,  Horan, 
Marks,  and  W.  C.  Levey.  Famous  vocalists  like  Catherine 
Hayes,  Mrs.  Scott  Fennell,  Signor  Foli  (Foley),  Barton  Mc- 
Guckin,  Denis  O'Sullivan,  and  William  Ludwig  deserve  in- 
clusion. 

In  our  own  day,  it  is  only  necessary  to  mention  composers 
like  Sir  Charles  Villiers  Stanford,  Dr.  C.  Woods,  Victor  Her- 


IRISH  MUSIC 


77 


bert,  Mrs.  Needham,  Dr.  Sinclair,  Norman  O'Neill,  and  Arthur 
O'Leary ;  singers  like  Egan,  Burke,  Plunket  Greene,  John  Mac- 
Cormack,  P.  O'Shea,  Charles  Manners,  and  Joseph  O'Mara; 
violinists  like  Maud  McCarthy,  Emily  Keady,  Arthur  Darley, 
and  Patrick  Delaney;  organists  like  Dr.  Charles  Marchant, 
Brendan  Rogers,  Dr.  Joze,  and  Professor  Buck;  writers  like 
Mrs.  Curwen,  Dr.  Annie  Patterson,  Mrs.  Milligan  Fox,  Pro- 
fessor Mahaffy,  A.  P.  Graves,  Dr.  Collison,  and  G.  B.  Shaw ; 
and  conductors  like  Hamilton  Harty  and  James  Glover. 

References  : 

Walker :  Irish  Bards  (1786)  ;  O'Curry  :  Lectures  (1870)  ;  Hardlman : 
Irish  Mistrelsy  (2  vols.,  1834)  ;  The  Complete  Petrie  CoUection 
(3  vols.,  1902-1904)  ;  Grattan  Flood:  History  of  Irish  Music  (3rd  ed., 
1913),  Story  of  the  Harp  (1906),  Story  of  the  Bagpipe  (1911)  ; 
Mrs.  Milligan  Fox:  Annals  of  the  Irish  Harpers  (1911);  Mason: 
Song  Lore  of  Ireland  (1910);  Armstrong:  Musical  Instruments 
(2  vols.,  1904-1908)  ;  O'Neill:  Irish  Folk  Music  (1911),  Irish  Mins- 
trels and  Musicians  (1913). 


IRISH  METAL  WORK 


By  Diarmid  Goffey. 

FROM  the  earliest  times  in  the  history  of  western  Europe 
Ireland  has  been  renowned  for  her  work  in  metal.  The 
first  metal  used  was  copper,  and  copper  weapons  are  found  in 
Ireland  dating  from  2,000  B.  C,  or  even  earlier,  the  beautiful 
designs  of  which  show  that  the  early  inhabitants  of  the  coun- 
try were  skilled  workers  in  metal.  Fields  of  copper  exist  all 
along  the  southern  seaboard  of  Ireland.  Numbers  of  flat 
copper  celts,  or  axes,  have  been  found  modelled  on  the  still 
earlier  stone  implements.  By  degrees  the  influence  of  the 
early  stone  axe  disappears  and  axes  of  a  true  metal  type  are 
developed.  Primitive  copper  knives  and  awls  are  also  abun- 
dant. The  fineness  of  the  early  Irish  copper  work  is  seen  at  its 
best  in  the  numerous  copper  halberd  blades  found  in  Ireland. 
These  blades,  varying  from  nine  to  sixteen  inches  in  length, 
were  fastened  at  right  angles  by  rivets  into  wooden  shafts. 
The  blades  show  a  slight  sickle-like  curve  and  are  of  the  high- 
est workmanship.  Halberds  somewhat  similar  in  type  have 
been  found  in  Spain,  North  Germany,  and  Scandinavia. 

Between  the  years  2000  and  1800  B.  C.  the  primitive  metal- 
workers discovered  that  bronze,  a  mixture  of  tin  and  copper, 
was  a  more  suitable  metal  than  pure  copper  for  the  manufac- 
ture of  weapons ;  and  the  first  period  of  the  bronze  age  may  be 
dated  from  1800  to  1500  B.  C.  The  bronze  celts  at  first  dif- 
fered little  from  those  made  of  copper,  but  gradually  the  typo 
developed  from  the  plain  wedge-shaped  celt  to  the  beautiful 
socketed  celt,  which  appears  on  the  scene  in  the  last,  or  fifth, 
division  of  the  bronze  age  (900-350  B.  C).  It  was  during 
the  age  of  bronze  that  spears  came  into  general  use,  as  did 
the  sword  and  rapier.  The  early  spear-heads  were  simply 
knife-shaped  bronze  weapons  riveted  to  the  ends  of  shafts, 
but  by  degrees  the  graceful  socketed  spear-heads  of  the  late 
bronze  age  were  developed. 

Stone  moulds  for  casting  the  early  forms  of  weapons  have 
been  found,  but,  as  the  art  of  metalworking  became  perfected, 
the  use  of  sand  moulds  was  discovered,  with  the  result  that 


IRISH  METAI^  WORK 


79 


there  are  no  extant  examples  of  moulds  for  casting  the  more 
developed  forms  of  weapons.  The  bronze  weapons — celts, 
swords,  and  spear-heads — are  often  highly  decorated.  In  these 
decorations  can  be  traced  the  connection  between  the  early 
Irish  civilization  and  that  of  the  eastern  Mediterranean.  The 
bronze  age  civilization  in  Europe  spread  westward  from  the 
eastern  Mediterranean  either  by  the  southern  route  of  Italy, 
Spain,  France,  and  thence  to  Ireland,  or,  as  seems  more  prob- 
able, up  the  river  Danube,  then  down  the  Elbe,  and  so  to 
Scandinavia,  whence  traders  by  the  north  of  Scotland  intro- 
duced the  motives  and  patterns  of  the  Aegean  into  Ireland. 
Whichever  way  the  eastern  civilization  penetrated  into  Ireland, 
it  left  England  practically  untouched  in  her  primitive  bar- 
barity. 

Of  gold  work,  for  which  Ireland  is  especially  famous,  the 
principar  feature  in  the  bronze  age  was  the  lunula,  a  crescent- 
shaped  flat  gold  ornament  generally  decorated  at  the  ends  of 
the  crescent.  These  lunulae  are  found  in  profusion  all  over 
Ireland.  A  few  have  been  found  in  Cornwall  and  Brittany, 
and  a  few  in  Scotland  and  Denmark.  One  has  been  found  in 
Luxemburg  and  one  in  Hanover. 

Gold  collars  are  numerous  in  Ireland  and  also  date  from  the 
bronze  age.  The  earliest  form  of  collar  is  the  "tore"  of  twisted 
gold.  Another  type,  later  in  date  than  the  tore,  is  the  gold 
ring-shaped  collar.  Two  splendid  examples  of  this  latter  type 
were  found  at  Clonmacnois,  the  decoration  of  which,  in  La 
Tene,  or  trumpet,  pattern,  shows  the  connection  between  the 
Irish  and  continental  designs. 

A  find  of  prehistoric  gold  ornaments  in  county  Clare  should 
be  mentioned.  An  immense  number  was  there  discovered  in 
1854  hidden  together  in  a  cist,  the  value  of  the  whole  being 
estimated  at  over  £3,000. 

Aftei  the  bronze  age  comes  the  iron  age.  The  introduc- 
tion of  iron  wrought  a  great  change  in  metalworking,  but,  as 
,  ^  iron  is  a  metal  very  subject  to  oxidization,  comparatively  few 
early  iron  remains  are  found.  There  are  some  swords  of  an 
early  pattern  in  the  National  Museum  at  Dublin. 

It  has  been  shown  that  the  pre-Christian  metalwork  of  Ire- 
and  is  well  worthy  of  attention,  but  it  is  to  the  early  Christian 


80 


THE  GLORIES  IRELAND 


metalworkers  that  Ireland  owes  her  pre-eminent  fame  in  this 
field.  In  early  Christian  Ireland  metalworking  was  brought 
to  a  pitch  rarely  equalled  and  never  excelled.  The  remains 
found,  such  as  the  Tara  Brooch,  the  Cross  of  Cong,  and  the 
Ardagh  Chalice,  are  among  the  most  beautiful  metalwork  in 
the  world.  The  wonderful  interlaced  patterns,  which  are  typ- 
ically Celtic,  bewildering  in  their  intricacy,  and  fascinating  in 
the  freedom  and  boldness  of  their  execution,  lend  themselves 
readily  to  metal  work. 

The  connecting  link  between  the  metalwork  of  the  late  pagan 
period  and  that  of  early  Christian  times  is  chiefly  exempli- 
fied by  the  penannular  brooches,  of  which  great  numbers 
have  been  found  in  Ireland.  Examples  of  this  characteris- 
tically Celtic  ornament  may  be  seen  in  all  Celtic  countries. 

In  its  earliest  form  this  brooch  is  simply  a  ring,  with  a  gap 
in  it,  to  which  a  pin  is  loosely  attached  by  a  smaller  ring. 
Gradually  the  open  ends  of  the  ring,  which  need  some  enlarge- 
ment in  order  to  prevent  the  pin  slipping  off,  became  larger 
and  ornamented.  In  time  these  became  regular  trumpet- 
shaped  ends,  generally  ornamented  with  characteristic  "trum- 
pet" patterns.  The  next  stage  was  to  close  the  gap,  leaving 
a  ring  with  a  crescent-shaped  disc  at  one  side.  Space  does 
not  permit  of  the  description  of  the  numerous  brooches  found. 
It  will  be  sufficient  to  describe  the  Tara  Brooch,  which  is 
the  crowning  glory  not  only  of  the  Irish  but  of  any  metal- 
worker's art. 

The  Tara  Brooch,  whose  only  connection  with  Tara  is  its 
name,  was  found  near  Drogheda ;  it  is  about  seven  inches  in 
diameter  and  the  pin  about  fifteen  inches  long.  It  is  made  of 
bronze  covered  with  the  most  elaborate  interlaced  ornament  in 
gold.  The  fineness  of  the  interlaced  work  may  be  compared 
with,  and  is  quite  equal  to,  that  of  the  best  illuminated  manu- 
scripts ;  the  freedom  of  its  execution  is  amazing.  Besides 
panels  of  ribbon  ornament,  which  include  spirals,  plaited  work, 
human  heads,  and  animal  forms,  the  front  of  the  brooch  is 
decorated  with  enamel  and  settings  of  amber  and  colored  glass. 
The  back  of  the  brooch  is,  as  Is  often  the  case  in  Irish  work, 
decorated  in  a  bolder  manner  than  the  front,  and  the  "trumpet" 
pattern  is  there  very  marked.    The  head  of  the  pin  is  also 


IRISH  ME^TAIv  WORK 


81 


elaborately  decorated.  The  minute  and  intricate  style  of  the 
work  is  strikingly  shown  by  the  fact  that,  even  after  prolonged 
study,  some  patterns  escaped  notice  and  have  only  lately  been 
discovered.  Further,  each  of  the  gold  lines  is  made  of  tiny 
•  gold  balls,  so  small  as  only  to  be  seen  by  means  of  a  magnify- 
ing glass. 

With  the  introduction  of  Christianity,  the  attention  of  artifi- 
cers was  turned  to  the  manufacture  of  church  vessels  and 
shrines.  Of  these  perhaps  the  most  beautiful  are  the  Ardagh 
Chalice,  the  Cross  of  Cong,  and  the  Shrine  of  St.  Patrick's 
Bell,  though  great  numbers  of  other  sacred  ornaments,  such 
as  the  Shrine  of  St.  Lactan's  Arm  and  the  numerous  bell 
shrines,  are  also  fine  examples  of  the  work  of  an  unsurpassed 
school  of  metalworkers. 

The  date  of  the  Tara  Brooch  is  not  easy  to  determine,  but 
it  may  probably  be  placed  in  the  eighth  century  of  our  era. 
The  Ardagh  Chalice  belongs  probably  to  about  the  same  date. 
It  was  found  in  a  rath  at  Ardagh,  county  Limerick,  in  1868. 
It  measures  7  inches  in  height  and  9J4  in  diameter.  Around 
the  cup  is  a  band  of  fine  filigree  interlaced  ornament  in  the 
form  of  panels  divided  by  half  beads  of  enamel.  Below  this 
are  the  names  of  the  twelve  Apostles  in  faint  Celtic  lettering. 
The  two  handles  are  beautifully  decorated  with  panels  of  inter- 
woven ornament,  and  on  the  sides  are  two  circular  discs  di- 
vided into  ornamented  panels.  The  under  side  of  the  foot  of 
the  Chalice  is  also  very  beautifully  decorated. 

The  shrines  of  the  bells  of  the  Irish  saints  are  interesting 
examples  of  Irish  metal  work.  As  is  fitting,  the  finest  of  these 
is  the  Shrine  of  St.  Patrick's  Bell.  This  was  made  by  order  of 
King  Domnall  O'Lachlainn  between  the  years  1091  and  1105 
to  contain  St.  Patrick's  bell,  a  square  iron  bell  made  of  two 
plates  of  sheet  iron  riveted  together.  The  shrine  is  made  of 
bronze  plates,  to  which  gold  filigree  work  and  stones  are  riv- 
eted. The  top  of  the  shrine,  curved  to  receive  the  handle  of 
the  bell,  is  of  silver  elaborately  decorated.  The  back  is  over- 
laid with  a  plate  of  silver  cut  in  cruciform  pattern.  Around 
the  margin  of  the  back  is  engraved  the  following  inscription  in 
Irish:  "A  prayer  for  Domnall  Ua  Lachlainn,  by  whom  this 


82 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


bell  [shrine]  was  made,  and  for  Domnall,  successor  of  Pat- 
rick, by  whom  it  was  made,  and  for  Cathalan  Ua  Maelchal- 
lann,  the  keeper  of  the  bell,  and  for  Cudulig  Ua  Inmainen 
with  his  sons,  who  fashioned  it."  The  whole  is  executed  in 
a  very  fine  manner  and  is  the  most  beautiful  object  of  its 
kind  in  existence.  Another  beautiful  shrine,  known  as  the 
Cross  of  Cong,  made  to  enshrine  a  piece  of  the  true  cross 
presented  by  the  pope  in  1123,  was  made  for  King  Turlogh 
O'Conor  at  about  that  date.  It  is  2  feet  6  inches  high  and  1 
foot  6^  inches  wide.  It  is  made  of  oak  cased  with  copper 
and  enriched  with  ornaments  of  gilded  bronze.  The  ornamen- 
tation is  of  the  t>-pical  Irish  t}-pe,  as  on  the  Ardagh  Chalice 
and  the  Shrine  of  St.  Patrick's  Bell.  A  quartz  cr^^stal  set  in 
the  centre  of  the  front  of  the  cross  probably  held  the  relic. 

It  is  clear  from  the  succession  of  beautiful  work  executed 
from  the  eighth  to  the  twelfth  centur}%  that  there  must 
have  existed  in  Ireland  during  that  period  a  school  of 
workers  in  metal  such  as  has  seldom  been  equalled  by  any 
indi\-idual  worker  or  guild  before  or  since,  and  never  excelled. 
The  examples  described  are  only  the  more  famous  of  the  re- 
mains of  early  Irish  Christian  art  in  metal,  but  they  are  sur- 
rounded by  ntmierous  examples  of  pins,  brooches,  and  shrines, 
each  worthy  to  rank  with  the  finest  productions  of  the  metal- 
worker. The  Shrine  of  St  !Moedoc  (date  uncertain)  ought 
perhaps  to  be  mentioned.  On  it  are  found  several  figures,  in- 
cluding three  nuns,  men  \^nth  books,  sceptres,  and  swords,  and 
a  lifelike  figure  of  a  harper. 

Besides  articles  of  ornament,  articles  of  use.  such  as  bits 
for  horses  and  household  utensils,  have  been  found,  which 
show  that  the  Irish  smiths  were  as  well  able  to  produce  articles 
for  ever)'-day  use  as  the  artificers  were  to  create  works  of  art 
in  metal. 

With  the  landing  of  the  English  in  1169  the  arts  and  sci- 
ences in  Ireland  declined.  Indeed,  from  that  time  on  and  for 
long  aften^ards,  almost  the  only  metalworkers  needed  were 
makers  of  arms  and  weapons  of  offense  and  defense. 


MIISH  METAIy  WORK 


83 


Refehences : 

British  Museum,  Bronze  Age  Guide;  Coffey:  Bronze  Age  in  Ire- 
land ;  Allen  :  Celtic  Art ;  Abercrombie :  Bronze  Age  Pottery  ;  Wilde : 
Catalogue  of  the  Royal  Irish  Academy's  Collection ;  Allen :  Christian 
Symbolism ;  Stokes :  Christian  Art  in  Ireland ;  Petrie :  Ecclesiastical 
Architecture  in  Ireland ;  Coffey :  Guide  to  the  Celtic  Antiquities  of 
the  Christian  Period  perserved  in  the  National  Museum,  Dublin; 
Kane :  Industrial  Resources  of  Ireland ;  O'Curry :  Manners  and  Cus- 
toms of  the  Ancient  Irish;  Coffey:  New  Grange  and  other  incised 
Tumuli  in  Ireland ;  Dechelette :  Manuel  d'Archeologie  pr6-historique ; 
Ridgeway:  Origin  of  Currency  and  Weight  Standards. 


IRISH  MANUSCRIPTS 


By  Louis  Ely  O'Carroll,  B.  A.,  B.  L. 

IN  the  dark  ages  of  Europe,  whilst  new  civilizations  were  in 
the  making  and  all  was  unrest,  art  and  religion,  like  the 
lamp  of  the  sanctuary,  burned  brightly  and  steadily  in  Ireland, 
and  their  rays  penetrated  the  outer  gloom.  Scattered  through 
the  libraries  of  Europe  are  the  priceless  manuscripts  limned 
by  Irish  scribes.  The  earliest  missionaries  to  the  continent, 
disciples  of  St.  Columbanus  and  St.  Gall,  doubtless  brought 
with  them  into  exile  beautiful  books  which  they  or  their 
brothers  of  the  parent  monastery  had  wrought  in  a  labor  of 
love;  or  mayhap  many  a  monk  crossed  the  seas  bearing  the 
treasured  volumes  into  hiding  from  the  spoiling  hands  of  the 
Dane.  Yet,  fortunately,  in  the  island  home  where  their  beauty 
was  born  the  most  superb  volumes  still  remain. 

From  almost  prehistoric  times  the  Irish  were  skilled  artifi- 
cers in  gold  and  bronze,  and,  at  the  advent  of  Christianity, 
had  already  evolved  and  perfected  that  unique  system  of  geo- 
metrical ornament  which  is  known  as  Celtic  design.  The 
original  and  essential  features  of  this  system  consisted  in  the 
use  of  spirals  and  interlacing  strapwork,  but  later  on  this  type 
was  developed  by  transforming  the  geometrical  fret  into  a 
scheme  of  imas^inary  or  nondescript  animals,  portions  of  which, 
such  as  the  tails  and  ears,  were  prolonged  and  woven  in  ex- 
quisite fancy  through  the  border.  The  artistic  features  of 
Celtic  book  decoration  consist  chiefly  of  initial  letters  of  this 
nature  embellished  with  color.  Amongst  the  ancient  Irish 
there  was  a  keen  knowledge  of  color  and  an  exceptional  appre- 
ciation of  color  values.  Thus  it  was  that  in  the  early  centuries 
of  Christian  Ireland  the  learned  monks,  transcribing  the  Gos- 
pels and  longing  to  make  the  book  beautiful,  were  able  to  bring 
to  their  task  an  artistic  skill  which  was  hereditary  and  almost 
instinctive.  The  colors  which  the}'"  used  were  mostly  derived 
from  mineral  substances  and  the  black  was  carbon,  made,  it  is 
conjectured,  from  charred  fish-bones ;  but  with  them  was  com- 
bined some  gummy  material  which  made  them  cling  softly  to 
the  vellum  and  has  held  for  us  their  histre  for  more  than  a 


IRISH  MANUSCRIPTS 


85 


thousand  years.  It  is  noteworthy  that  neither  gold  nor  silver 
was  used  for  book  decoration,  and  this  would  appear  to  be  a 
deliberate  avoidance  of  the  glitter  and  glare  which  distinguish 
eastern  art. 

The  Book  of  Durrow  (in  the  Library  of  Trinity  College, 
Dublin)  is  the  oldest  specimen  of  Celtic  illumination  and,  if 
not  the  work  of  St.  Columcille,  is  certainly  of  as  early  a  date. 
Each  of  the  Gospels  opens  with  a  beautiful  initial  succeeded 
by  letters  of  gradually  diminishing  size,  and  there  are  full  page 
decorations  embodying  such  subjects  as  the  symbols  of  the 
Evangelists.  The  colors  are  rich  and  vivid  and  all  the  designs 
are  of  the  purest  and  most  Celtic  character. 

The  Gospels  of  MacRegol  (now  in  the  Bodleian  Library, 
Oxford)  is  the  work  of  an  Abbot  of  Birr  who  died  A.  D.  820. 
It  is  a  volume  of  unusually  large  size,  copiously  ornamented 
with  masterly  designs  and  containing  illuminated  portraits  of 
Saints  Mark,  Luke,  and  John.  The  first  part  of  the  book 
with  the  portrait  of  St.  Matthew  is  missing. 

The  Book  of  Kells  (in  the  Library  of  T.  C.  D.)  is  the  all- 
surpassing  masterpiece  of  Celtic  illuminative  art  and  is  ac- 
knowledged to  be  the  most  beautiful  book  in  the  world.  This 
copy  of  the  four  Gospels  was  long  deemed  to  have  been  made 
by  the  saintly  hands  of  Columcille,  though  it  probably  belongs 
to  the  eighth  century.  Into  its  pages  are  woven  such  a  wealth 
of  ornament,  such  an  ecstasy  of  art,  and  such  a  miracle  of 
design  that  the  book  is  today  not  only  one  of  Ireland's  greatest 
glories  but  one  of  the  world's  wonders.  After  twelve  cen- 
turies the  ink  is  as  black  and  lustrous  and  the  colors  are  as 
fresh  and  soft  as  though  but  the  work  of  yesterday.  The 
whole  range  of  colors  is  there — green,  blue,  crimson,  scarlet, 
yellow,  purple,  violet — and  the  same  color  is  at  times  varied 
in  tone  and  depth  and  shade,  thereby  achieving  a  more  ex- 
quisite combination  and  effect.  In  addition  to  the  numerous 
decorative  pages  and  marvellous  initials,  there  are  portraits 
of  the  Evangelists  and  full-page  miniatures  of  the  Temptation 
of  Christ,  His  Seizure  by  the  Jews,  and  the  Madonna  and 
Child  surrounded  by  Angels  with  censers.  Exceptionally 
beautiful  are  these  angels  and  other  angelic  figures  throughout 
tlie  book,  their  wings  shining  with  glowing  colors  amid  woven 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


patterns  of  graceful  design.  The  portraits  and  miniatures  and 
the  numerous  faces  centred  in  initial  letters  are  not  to  be 
adjudged  by  the  standard  of  anatomical  drawing  and  delinea- 
tion of  the  human  figure,  but  rather  by  their  effect  as  part  of 
a  scheme  of  ornamentation ;  for  the  Celtic  illuminator  was  im- 
aginative rather  than  realistic,  and  aimed  altogether  at 
achieving  beauty  by  means  of  color  and  design.  The  Book  of 
Kells  is  the  Mecca  of  the  illimiinative  artist,  but  it  is  the 
despair  of  the  copyist.  The  patience  and  skill  of  the  olden 
scribe  have  baffled  the  imitator ;  for,  on  an  examination  with  a 
magnifying  glass,  it  has  been  found  that,  in  a  space  of  a  quarter 
of  an  inch,  there  are  no  fewer  than  a  hundred  and  fifty-eight 
interlacements  of  a  ribbon  pattern  of  white  lines  edged  by 
black  ones  on  a  black  ground.  Surely  this  is  the  manuscript 
which  w^as  shown  to  Giraldus  Cambrensis  towards  the  close 
©f  the  twelfth  century  and  of  whose  illuminations  he  speaks 
with  glowing  enthusiasm;  "they  were,"  he  says,  "supposed  to 
have  been  produced  by  the  direction  of  an  angel  at  the  prayer 
©f  St.  Brigid." 

The  Gospels  of  MacDurnan  (now  in  the  Archbishop's 
Library  at  Lambeth)  is  a  small  and  beautiful  volume  which 
was  executed  by  an  abbot  of  Armagh  who  died  in  the  year  891. 
A  full-page  picture  of  the  Evangelist  precedes  each  Gospel,  and 
a  composite  border  frames  each  miniature  in  a  bewildering  pat- 
tern of  intertwining  strapwork  and  wonderful  designs  of  im- 
aginary beasts.  Ornamental  capitals  and  rich  borders  give  a 
special  beauty  to  the  initial  pages  of  the  Gospels. 

The  Book  of  Armagh  (in  the  Library  of  T.  C.  D.)  was 
carefully  guarded  and  specially  venerated  through  the  ages  in 
the  erroneous  belief  that  it  was  in  part  the  handiwork  of  St. 
Patrick.  It  was  written  about  the  year  800,  and  would  appear 
to  have  been  copied  from  documents  actually  written  by  the 
patron  saint  of  Ireland.  The  book  is  exceptionally  interest- 
ing by  reason  of  the  fact  that  it  contains  St.  Patrick's  Con- 
fession, that  beautiful  story  of  how  he  found  his  mission,  how 
the  captive  grew  to  love  his  captors,  and  how,  after  his  escape, 
he  came  back  to  them  bearing  the  lamp  of  Holy  Faith. 
Although  the  ornamentation  of  the  manuscript  is  infrequent, 


IRISH  MANUSCRIPTS 


87 


there  are  occasional  beautiful  examples  which  compare  in  rich- 
ness with  those  in  the  Book  of  Kells. 

The  Liber  Hymnorum  (in  the  Franciscan  Monastery,  Dub- 
lin) contains  a  number  of  hymns  associated  with  the  names  of 
Irish  saints.  The  ornamentation  consists  of  colored  initials, 
designed  with  a  striking  use  of  fanciful  animal  figures  inter- 
laced and  twined  with  delightful  freedom  around  the  main 
structural  body. 

The  Garland  of  Howth  and  the  St  owe  Missal  (both  in 
Trinity  College  Library)  belong  to  the  eighth  century  and 
are  beautiful  examples  of  early  illuminative  art.  The  former, 
which  is  very  incomplete,  has  only  two  ornamental  pages  left, 
each  containing  figure-representations  inserted  in  the  decora- 
tive work. 

The  Gospels  of  St.  Chad  (in  the  Cathedral  Library  at  Lich- 
field) and  the  Gospels  of  Lindisfarne,  which  are  "the  glory  of 
the  British  Museum",  form  striking  examples  of  the  influence 
of  Celtic  art.  St.  Chad  was  educated  in  Ireland  in  the  school 
of  St.  Finian,  where  he  acquired  his  training  in  book  decora- 
tion. The  Gospels  of  Lindisfarne  were  produced  by  the  monks 
of  lona,  where  St.  Columcille  founded  his  great  school  of 
religion,  art,  and  learning.  This  latter  manuscript  is  second 
only  to  the  Book  of  Kells  in  its  glory  of  illuminative  design, 
and,  from  its  distinctive  scheme  of  colors,  the  tones  of  which 
are  light  and  bright  and  gay,  it  forms  a  contrast  to  the  quieter 
shades  and  the  solemn  dignity  of  the  more  famous  volume. 

The  Book  of  the  Dun  Cow,  The  Book  of  Leinster,  and  the 
other  great  manuscripts  of  the  eleventh,  twelfth,  and  thirteenth 
centuries  are  interesting  as  literature  rather  than  as  art,  for 
they  tell  the  history  of  ancient  Erin  and  have  garnered  her 
olden  legends  and  romantic  tales.  It  is  only  the  Gospels  and 
other  manuscripts  of  religious  subjects  that  are  illuminated. 
In  the  apparel  of  the  ancient  Irish,  the  number  of  colors 
marked  the  social  rank:  the  king  might  wxar  seven  colors, 
poets  and  learned  men  six;  five  colors  were  permitted  in  the 
clothes  of  chieftains,  and  thus  grading  down  to  the  servant, 
who  might  wear  but  one.  All  this  the  scribe  knew  well.  We 
can  picture  the  humble  servant  of  God,  clad  in  a  coarse  robe  of 
a  single  color,  deep  in  his  chosen  labor  of  recording  the  life 


88 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


and  teachings  of  his  Master,  and  striving  to  endow  this  record 
with  the  glory  of  the  seven  colors  which  were  rightly  due  to  a 
King  alone.  As  we  gaze  on  his  work  today  its  beauty  is 
instinct  with  life,  and  the  patient  love  that  gave  it  birth  seems 
to  cling  to  it  still.  The  white  magic  of  the  artist's  holy  hands 
has  bridged  the  span  of  a  thousand  years. 

References : 

O'Curry :  Lectures  on  the  Manuscript  Materials  of  Ancient  Irish 
History  (Dublin,  1861)  ;  Bruun :  An  Enquiry  into  the  Art  of  the 
Illuminated  Manuscripts  of  the  Middle  Ages,  Part  I,  Celtic  Illu- 
minated Manuscripts  (Edinburgh,  1897)  ;  Robinson:  Celtic  Illumina- 
tive Art  in  the  Gospels  of  Durrow,  Lindisfarne,  and  Kells  (Dublin, 
1908)  ;  Westwood :  The  Book  of  Kells,  a  lecture  given  in  Oxford, 
November,  1886  (Dublin,  1887)  :  Gougaud ;  Repertoire  des  fac-similes 
des  manuscripts  irlandais  (Paris,  1913). 


THE  RUINS  OF  IRELAND 


By  Francis  Joseph  Bigger^  M.  R.  I.  A. 
HE  ruins  of  Ireland  are  her  proudest  monuments.  They 


1  stand  as  a  lasting  revelation  to  all  mankind — a  distinct 
and  definite  proclamation  that  the  Irish  people,  century  after 
century,  were  able  to  raise  and  adorn  some  of  the  finest  build- 
ings in  stone  that  western  civilization  has  seen  or  known.  It 
is  recognized  the  world  over  that  Irish  art  has  a  beauty  and 
distinction  all  its  own,  in  its  own  Irish  setting  unrivalled, 
throned  in  its  own  land,  in  its  own  natural  surroundings.  The 
shrines  and  gospels,  the  reliquaries  and  missals,  the  crosses 
and  bells  that  are  still  existent,  many  in  Ireland,  others  in 
every  country  in  the  world,  attest  beyond  any  dispute  that 
Irish  art-workers  held  a  preeminent  place  in  the  early  middle 
ages,  and  that  works  of  Irish  art  are  still  treasured  as  unique 
in  their  day  and  time.  No  country  has  been  plundered  and 
desolated  as  Ireland  has  been.  Dane,  Norman,  English — each 
in  turn  swept  across  the  fair  face  of  Ireland,  carrying  destruc- 
tion in  their  train,  yet  withal  Ireland  has  her  art  treasures 
and  her  ruins  that  bear  favorable  comparison  with  those  of 
©ther  civilizations. 

In  Dublin  and  in  many  private  Irish  collections  can  be  found 
hand- written  books  of  parchment,  illuminated  with  glowing 
colors  that  time  has  scarce  affected  or  the  years  caused 
to  fade.  On  one  page  alone  of  the  Book  of  Kells,  ornament 
and  writing  can  be  seen  penned  and  painted  in  lines  too 
numerous  even  to  count.  They  are  there  by  the  thousand : 
a  magnifying  glass  is  required  to  reveal  even  a  fragment  of 
them.  Ireland  produced  these  in  endless  number — every  great 
library  or  collection  in  Europe  possesses  one  or  more  examples. 

As  with  books,  so  with  reliquaries,  crosses,  and  bells.  When 
the  Island  of  Saints  and  Scholars  could  produce  books,  it 
could  make  shrines  and  everything  necessary  to  stimulate  and 
hand  down  the  piety  and  the  patient  skill  of  a  people  steeped 
in  art-craft  and  religious  feeling.  What  they  could  do  on 
parchment — like  the  Books  of  Kells  and  Durrow — what  they 
could  produce  in  bronze  and  precious  metals — like  the  Cross 


90 


THE  GLORIES  O^^  IRELAND 


of  Cong,  the  Shrine  of  Saint  Patrick's  Bell,  the  Tara  Brooch, 
and  the  Chalice  of  Ardagh — not  to  write  of  the  numberless 
bronze  and  gold  articles  of  an  age  centuries  long  preceding 
their  production — they  could  certainly  vie  with  in  stone. 

Of  this  earlier  work  a  word  must  go  down.  In  Ireland  still 
at  the  present  day,  after  all  the  years  of  plunder  she  has  under- 
gone, more  ancient  gold  art-treasures  remain  than  in  any  other 
country,  museum,  or  collection,  most  of  them  pre-Christian, 
and  what  the  other  countries  do  possess  are  largely  Irish  or  of 
Celtic  origin.  We  must  have  this  borne  into  the  minds  of 
every  one  of  Irish  birth  or  origin,  that  this  great  treasure 
was  battered  into  shape  by  Irish  hands  on  Irish  anvils,  de- 
signed in  Irish  studios,  ornamented  with  Irish  skill  for  Irish 
use. 

With  such  workmen,  having  such  instincts  and  training, 
what  of  the  housing  and  surroundings  to  contain  them  and 
give  them  a  fit  and  suitable  setting?  The  earliest  stone  struc- 
tures in  Ireland  still  remaining  are  the  great  stone  cashels  or 
circular  walls  enclosing  large  spaces — walls  of  great  thickness, 
unmortared,  in  which  there  are  vast  quantities  of  masonry. 
Around  their  summits  a  chariot  might  be  driven,  inside  their 
spaces  horse  races  might  be  run.  As  a  few  examples,  there 
are  Staigue,  in  Kerry ;  Dun  Angus,  in  Aran,  off  Galway ;  Ail- 
each,  above  the  walls  of  Derry.  Of  the  earliest  churches, 
Cyclopean  in  construction  and  primitive  in  character,  built  of 
stone,  with  thick  sloping  walls  from  foundation  to  ridge,  Gal- 
lerus  still  remains,  and  the  Skelligs,  those  wondrous  sea-girt 
rocks,  preserv^e  both  church  and  cell  almost  perfect.  There 
are  many  other  examples,  some  of  a  later  date,  such  as  Temple 
Cronan  and  Maghera  and  Banagher  in  Derry,  St.  Finan's 
oratory  in  county  Cork,  St.  Fechin's  at  Fore,  and  St.  Molaise's 
at  Devenish. 

From  the  seventh,  eighth,  and  ninth  centuries,  there  are 
innumerable  examples  of  oratories,  some  with  stone  roofs, 
others  with  roofs  not  so  permanent,  but  all  having  the  common 
features  of  an  altar  window  facing  the  east,  through  which  the 
sun  fell  at  the  beginning  of  the  day  to  tell  the  early  missioner 
that  his  hour  of  devotion  had  arrived,  and  a  west  door,  through 
which  the  rays  of  the  declining  sun  fell  across  the  altar  steps, 


THE  RUINS  OF  IRE^IvAND 


91 


Speaking  of  a  day  that  was  closing.  A  south  window  was 
added  close  to  the  east  end,  and  it,  too,  was  a  sun-dial ;  it  told 
the  hour  of  angelus,  the  mid-day,  when  the  bell  was  rung  and  a 
calm  reverence  fell  on  all  within  its  hearing.  Such  churches 
can  still  be  seen  at  Aran  and  Inismurray,  on  the  islands  of 
Lough  Derg,  Lough  Ri,  and  in  many  other  places. 

A  few  years  later  these  oratories  were  too  small  for  the 
growing  faith,  and  larger  churches  were  built,  some  using  the 
older  structure  as  chancels.  Where  the  west  door  was  built  a 
circular  arch  was  made  and  the  new  and  old  united.  This  can 
well  be  seen  at  Inis-na-ghoill  in  Lough  Corrib,  on  the  Aran 
Islands  off  Galway,  at  Glendalough,  at  Inis-cleraun  in  Lough 
Ri,  at  Clonmacnois,  at  Iniscaltra,  and  on  many  another  island 
and  promontory  of  the  south  and  west. 

During  this  time,  and  after,  we  find  the  most  elaborate 
carvings  on  door  and  arch  and  window,  equal  in  skill  to  what 
is  found  in  book  or  metal  work. 

It  must  have  been  at  this  time  that  the  Galls,  or  strangers, 
first  invaded  Ireland,  bearing  havoc  in  their  train,  for  then  it 
was  that  the  cloicteach,  or  Round  Towers,  were  built.  It  is 
now  admitted  by  all  Irish  authorities  of  any  repute,  and  that 
beyond  dispute,  that  the  Round  Towers,  the  glory  of  Ireland, 
were  built  by  Irish  people  as  Christian  monuments  from  which 
the  bells  might  be  rung,  and  as  places  of  strength  for  the 
preservation  of  the  valued  articles  used  in  Christian  worship ; 
here  they  might  be  safely  stored.  They  were  also  used  for  the 
preservation  of  life  in  case  of  sudden  attack  and  onslaught  by 
unexpected  enemies.  All  the  towers  are  on  ecclesiastical  sites, 
many  are  incorporated  in  church  buildings,  such  as  those  of 
Glendalough  in  Wicklow  and  Clonmacnois  on  the  Shannon. 
The  records  of  the  construction  of  some  of  them  in  the  tenth 
and  eleventh  centuries  are  still  extant,  and  this  is  conclusive. 
There  are  today  about  seventy  Round  Towers  in  Ireland,  and 
many  have  been  destroyed. 

The  pillar  towers  of  Ireland,  how  wondrously  they  stand 
By  the  lakes  and  rushing  rivers  through  the  valleys  of  our  land; 
In  mystic  file,  through  the  isle,  they  lift  their  heads  sublime, 
These  gray  old  pillar  temples — these  conquerors  of  time. 


92 


the;  GI.ORIES  OF  IRELAND 


Here  was  placed  the  holy  chalice  that  held  the  sacred  wine, 
And  the  gold  cross  from  the  altar,  and  the  relics  from  the  shrine. 
And  the  mitre  shining  brighter  with  its  diamonds  than  the  east, 
And  the  crozier  of  the  pontiff,  and  the  vestments  of  the  priest. 

D.  F.  MacCarthy. 

This  was  the  time  when  the  High  Crosses  of  Ireland  were 
carved  and  set  up.  They  vie  with  the  Round  Towers  in  inter- 
est and  in  the  display  of  skill.  What  the  towers  have  in  per- 
fection, masonry  and  construction,  the  crosses  have  in  artistic 
carving  and  symbolic  design.  No  two  crosses  are  alike;  they 
are  as  varied  as  the  clouds  in  an  Irish  sky  or  the  pebbles  on  the 
beach  or  the  flowers  in  a  garden.  They  were  carved  in  rever- 
ence by  those  who  knew  and  esteemed  their  art,  and  lavished  all 
their  skill  and  knowledge  on  what  they  most  valued  and  treas- 
ured. They  were  not  set  up  as  grave-marks  merely — theirs  was 
a  higher  and  loftier  mission.  They  vi^ere  raised  in  places  where 
some  great  event  or  period  was  to  be  commemorated — they 
were  erected  where  some  early  disciple  of  the  Cross  could  stand 
beside  one  of  them  and  from  any  panel  could  tell  the  founda- 
tion of  the  Faith,  for  there  in  stone  was  story  after  story,  from 
the  Old  Testament  and  the  New,  that  gave  him  his  text,  and 
so,  as  at  the  Cross  of  the  Scriptures  at  Clonmacnois,  a  mis- 
sioner  could  preach  on  every  recurring  holy  day  from  Christ- 
mas to  Christmas,  with  ever  his  text  in  stone  before  him. 
Many  a  broken  and  mutilated  cross  has  been  set  up  in  Ire- 
land in  recent  years,  proving  that  the  heart  of  the  Gael,  no 
matter  how  rent  and  broken,  is  still  inclined  to  bind  up  the 
broken  wounds  of  her  past  glories. 

With  the  religious  orders  there  came  to  Ireland  a  wide- 
spread desire  to  add  something  to  the  older  sanctuaries  of  the 
Gael,  to  widen  their  borders  and  strengthen  their  cords,  and  so 
the  abbeys  were  founded.  Here  and  there  we  find  them  still — 
by  winding  rivers,  on  rich  meadows,  in  glens  and  glades, 
by  the  sea  margin,  or  on  the  slopes  of  the  rugged  mountain. 
Their  crumbling  walls  and  broken  windows  can  still  be  traced, 
their  towers  are  still  to  be  seen  over  tree  tops  and  in  the  centre 
of  many  a  slumbering  town.  By  the  shores  of  Donegal  Bay 
the  old  Franciscan  house,  where  the  Four  Masters  compiled 


THE  RUINS  01^  IRELAND 


93 


what  is  perhaps  the  most  remarkable  record  possessed  by  any 
nation,  is  still  clothed  in  ivy.  At  Kilconnell,  in  Galway,  their 
old  place  is  almost  as  they  left  it,  but  roofless,  with  the  tears 
of  the  friars  upon  the  altar  steps.  Clare  Galway  has  a  tower 
worth  travelling  half  a  continent  to  see.  By  the  Boniet  River, 
at  Drumahaire,  on  the  banks  of  Lough  Gill,  are  the  mason 
marks  of  the  cloister  builders,  and  the  figure  of  St.  Francis 
talking  to  the  birds  is  still  there.  The  abbey  is  roofless  and 
empty,  and  so  the  birds  of  the  air  are  his  constant  companions. 

Space  forbids,  or  endless  abbeys  might  be  described.  The 
Black  Abbey  at  Kilkenny,  with  its  long  row  of  Butler  effigies, 
or  the  Cathedral  of  Saint  Canice,  still  perfect,  with  its  soaring 
round  tower  beside  it,  or  the  mystical  seven  light  window  of 
the  Franciscan  friary  by  the  Nore,  with  the  old  mill-weirs 
running  free  to  this  day.  How  long  could  we  ponder  by  the 
east  window  of  Kilcooley,  with  tracery  like  a  spider's  web,  and 
listen  to  the  mystical  bells,  or  gaze  at  the  beautiful  oriel  at 
Feenagh,  or  stand  at  Jerpoint,  with  its  spacious  cloisters  and 
stone-groined  choir,  with  Saint  Christopher  in  Irish  marble 
beside  us. 

Cashel,  one  of  the  wonders  of  the  world,  grows  up  sud- 
denly into  sight  on  a  high  rock  rising  from  level  land  crowned 
with  buildings.  A  great  abbey  dominates ;  beside  it  clings  that 
carved  gem  of  a  stone-roofed  church,  Cormac's  Chapel. 
Round  Tower  and  Cross  are  there,  and  many  a  sculptured 
tomb. 

Not  far  from  Cashel  is  the  Abbey  of  Holy  Cross,  with  its 
lovely  mitred  windows,  shadowed  in  the  river  passing  at  its 
feet.  The  circular  pillars  and  arches  of  Boyle  Abbey  are 
splendidly  proportioned,  whilst  the  cloisters  of  Sligo  display 
in  their  long,  shadowy  recesses  and  ornamented  pillars  great 
dignity  and  beauty.  The  windows  and  monuments  of  Ennis 
Friary,  founded  by  the  O'Briens,  are  of  unusual  interest,  the 
carving  of  figure-subjects  being  equal  to  the  best  of  their  age. 

We  have  Thomastown  and  Callan,  Dunbrody  and  Tintern, 
all  having  an  individual  charm  and  interest  that  not  only  dim 
the  eye  and  make  the  blood  course  freely  in  every  one  of  Irish 
stock  when  he  looks  upon  what  is  and  thinks  of  what  was, 
but  even  in  the  coldest  light  give  food  for  thought  to  every  one 


94 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


desirous  of  knowing  something  of  the  growth  and  civilization 
of  a  great  people. 

Of  the  many  castles  and  stout  Irish  strongholds  it  is  hard 
to  write  in  such  a  short  paper  as  this.  Those  on  the  Boyne, 
such  as  Trim,  for  strong  building  and  extent,  excel  in  many 
ways.  Carlingford,  Carrickfergus,  and  Dunluce  have  by  thefr 
size  and  picturesque  situations  ever  appealed  to  visitors.  They 
are  each  built  on  rocks  jutting  into  the  sea,  Dunluce  on  a  great 
perpendicular  height,  the  Atlantic  dashing  below.  Dunamace, 
near  Marvborough,  in  the  Colore  countr}',  appears  like  Cashel, 
but  is  entirely  military.  The  famed  walled  cities  of  Kells,  in 
Kilkenny,  and  Fore,  in  Westmeath,  are  remarkable.  Each  has 
an  abbey,  many  towers,  gates,  and  stout  bastions.  The  great 
keeps  of  the  midland  lords,  the  towers  of  Granuaile  on  the 
west  coast,  and  the  traders*  towers  on  the  east  coast,  especially 
those  of  Down,  afford  ample  material  for  a  study  of  the  early 
colonizing  efforts  of  different  invaders,  as  well  as  providing 
incidents  of  heroism  and  romance.  These  square  battlemented 
towers  can  be  seen  here  and  there  in  every  district. 

Every  portion  of  Ireland  has  its  ruins.  Earthworks,  stone 
forts,  prehistoric  monuments,  circular  stone  huts,  early 
churches,  abbeys,  crosses,  round  towers,  castles  of  every  size 
and  shape  are  to  be  found  in  every  county,  some  one  in  every 
parish,  all  over  Ireland.  It  is  almost  invidious  to  name  any  in 
particular  where  the  number  is  so  great. 

References  : 

Proceedings  of  Royal  Irish  Academy  (Dublin);  Proceedings  of 
Society  of  Antiquaries  (Dublin)  ;  Ulster  Journal  of  Archaeology, 
Old  Series  and  New  Series,  edited  by  F.  J.  Bigger,  Belfast;  Wake- 
man:  Handbook  of  Irish  Antiquities  (Dublin,  1S91)  ;  Stokes:  Early 
Christian  Art  in  Ireland  (Dublin,  1887);  Petrie:  Round  Towers  and 
Ancient  Architecture  of  Ireland  (Dublin,  1845). 


MODERN  IRISH  ART 

By  D.  J.  O'DoNOGHUE, 
Librarian,  University  College,  Dublin. 

IT  would  be  difficult  to  dilute,  in  view  of  her  innumerable 
and  excellent  artists,  that  there  has  always  been  in  modern 
times  an  art  consciousness  in  Ireland,  but  it  is  impossible  to 
assert  that  there  has  been  any  artistic  unity  in  her  people.  She 
has  produced  no  school,  but  merely  a  great  number  of  brilliant 
painters,  sculptors,  and  engravers,  chiefly  for  export.  With 
all  our  acknowledged  artistic  capacity,  we  have  not,  except  in 
one  notable  instance,  produced  a  cumulative  art  effect.  The 
history  of  Irish  art  is  almost  uniformly  a  depressing  narrative. 
During  a  comparatively  brief  period  in  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury— significantly  enough,  it  was  while  the  country  enjoyed  a 
short  spell  of  national  life — there  was  something  like  a  national 
patronage  of  the  artist,  and  the  result  is  visible  in  the  noble 
public  buildings  and  beautiful  houses  of  the  Irish  capital,  with 
their  universally  admired  mantelpieces,  doors,  ceilings,  fan- 
lights, ironwork,  and  carvings.  In  short,  while  Ireland  had 
even  a  partly  unfettered  control  of  her  own  concerns,  the  arts 
were  generously  encouraged  by  her  government  .and  by  the  • 
wealthy  individual.  When  other  European  capitals  were  mere 
congeries  of  rookeries,  Dublin,  the  centre  of  Irish  political 
life,  possessed  splendid  streets,  grandly  planned.  But  there 
was  little  solidarity  among  the  artistic  fraternity.  Various 
associations  of  artists  were  formed,  which  held  together  fairly 
well  until  the  flight  of  the  resident  town  gentry  after  the 
Union,  and  many  admirable  artists  were  trained  in  the  schools 
of  the  Royal  Dublin  Society,  but,  since  the  opening  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  there  has  been  almost  no  visible  art  effort 
in  Dublin,  True,  there  have  been  many  fine  artists,  who  have 
made  a  struggle  to  fix  themselves  in  Dublin,  but,  as  with  the 
Royal  Hibernian  Academy,  of  which  the  best  of  them  were 
members,  the  struggle  has  been  a  painful  agony.  Usually  the 
artist  migrated  to  London  to  join  the  large  group  of  Irishmen 
working  there;  a  few  others  went  to  America  and  obtained 
an  honored  place  in  her  art  annals.    Those  who  went  to 


96 


THE  GLORIES  OE  IRELAND 


England  secured  in  many  cases  the  highest  rewards  of  the 
profession.  Several,  like  Barry,  Hone,  Barrett,  and  Cotes, 
were  founders  or  early  members  of  the  Royal  Academy ;  one. 
Sir  Martin  Shee,  became  its  President.  Nevertheless,  many 
distinguished  artists  remained  in  Dublin,  where  the  arts  of 
portrait-painting  and  engraving  were  carried  to  a  high  pitch 
of  excellence. 

This  record  must  necessarily  be  of  a  chronological  character, 
and  can  only  take  note  of  those  whose  works  have  actual  value 
and  interest,  historical  or  other.  Edward  Luttrell  (1650- 
1710)  did  some  excellent  work  in  crayon  or  pastel,  while 
Garrett  Murphy  (fl.  1650-1716),  Stephen  Slaughter  (d.  1765), 
Francis  Bindon  (d.  1765),  and  James  Latham  (1696-17-17), 
have  each  left  us  notable  portraits  of  the  great  Irish  person- 
ages of  their  day.  To  fellow  countrymen  in  London,  Charles 
Jervas  (1675 ?-1739),  Thomas  Hickey  (d.  1816?),  and  Francis 
Cotes,  R.  A.  (1725-1770),  we  owe  presentments  of  other 
famous  people.  George  Barrett,  R.  A.  (1728-1784),  one  of 
the  greatest  landscapists  of  his  time;  Nathaniel  Hone,  R.  A. 
(1718-1784),  an  eccentric  but  gifted  painter,  with  an  indi- 
viduality displayed  in  all  his  portraits;  James  Barry,  R.  A. 
(1741-1806),  still  more  eccentric,  with  grand  conceptions  im- 
perfectly carried  out  in  his  great  historical  and  allegorical 
pictures :— these,  with  Henry  Tresham,  R.  A.  (1749?1814), 
and  Matthew  Peters,  R.  A.  (1742-1814),  historical  painters  of 
considerable  merit,  upheld  the  Irish  claim  to  a  high  place  in 
English  eighteenth  century  art.  A  little  later,  miniaturists 
such  as  Horace  Hone,  A.  R.  A.  (1756-1825),  George  Chinnery 
(1774-1852),  and  Adam  Buck  (1759-1844),  also  worked  with 
remarkable  success  in  London.  Among  resident  Irish  artists, 
the  highest  praise  can  be  given  to  the  miniature  painters,  John 
Comerford  (1770P1832)  and  Charles  Robertson  (1760-1821), 
and  to  the  portrait-painters,  Robert  Hunter  (fl.  1750-1803) 
and  (especially)  Hugh  Douglas  Hamilton  (1739-1808),  of 
whose  work  Ireland  possesses  many  distinguished  examples. 
Some  day  Hamilton's  pictures  will  appeal  to  a  far  wider  public 
than  his  countrymen  can  provide.  One  must  omit  the  names  of 
many  clever  Irish  artists  like  the  Wests,  Francis  and  Robert, 
who  were  the  most  successful  teachers  of  perhaps  any  time 


MODERN  IRISH  ART 


97 


in  Ireland,  and  come  at  once  to  that  branch  of  art  in  which 
Ireland  stands  second  to  none — mezzotint-engraving. 

One  of  the  earliest  engravers  in  this  style  was  Edward 
Luttrell,  already  named  as  a  painter,  but  it  was  John  Brooks 
(fl.  1730-1756)  who  is  justly  considered  the  real  founder  of 
that  remarkable  group  of  Irish  engravers  whose  work  may  be 
more  correctly  described  as  belonging  to  a  school  than  any 
other  of  the  period.  For  many  years  in  Dublin,  and  after- 
wards in  London,  a  succession  of  first-rate  artists  of  Irish 
birth  produced  work  which  remains  and  always  must  remain 
one  of  the  glories  of  Ireland.  Limits  of  space  allow  only 
the  bare  mention  of  the  names  of  James  McArdell  (1728?- 
1765),  Charles  Spooner  (d.,1767),  Thomas  Beard  (fl.  1728), 
Thomas  Frye  (1710-1762),  Edward  Fisher  (1722-1785?), 
Michael  Ford  (d.  1765),  John  Dixon  (1710?-1811),  Richard 
Purcell  (fl.  1746-1766),  Richard  Houston  (1721  ?-1775),  John 
Murphy  (1748 ?-1820),  Thomas  Burke  (1749-1815),  Charles 
Exshaw  (fl.  1747-1771),  and  Luke  Sullivan  (1705-1771)— 
artists  of  whom  any  country  might  be  proud,  and  whose  works 
have  in  most  cases  outlasted  the  remembrance  of  the  persons 
whose  likenesses  they  sought  to  reproduce.  Separate  mono- 
graphs might  be  justifiably  written  on  most  of  the  gifted 
artists  here  enumerated,  and  one  can  only  regret  not  being 
able  in  short  space  to  compare  and  estimate  their  various 
qualities.  Thomas  Chambers,  A.  R.  A.  (1724?-1784),  William 
Nelson  Gardiner  (1766-1814),  James  Egan  (1799-1842),  and 
William  Humphreys  (1794-1865)  are  other  Irish  engravers 
who  cannot  be  overlooked  in  a  survey  of  the  art  of  the  late 
eighteenth  and  early  nineteenth  centuries. 

Contemporaneously  with  the  remarkable  development  of  the 
art  of  engraving  arose  a  group  of  Irish  architects.  Rather 
earlier  in  point  of  time  was  Sir  Edward  Lovat  Pearce  (d. 
1733),  who  was  one  of  the  chief  architects  of  the  Irish  Parlia- 
ment House,  and  Thomas 'Burgh  (d.  1730),  to  whom  we  owe 
the  Library  of  Trinity  College,  Dublin;  but  Thomas  Cooley 
(1740-1784),  designer  of  the  handsome  Royal  Exchange  of 
that  city;  Richard  Castle  (d.  1751),  a  foreigner  who  settled  in 
Ireland  and  built  a  number  of  beautiful  Irish  residences; 
Francis  Johnston  (1761-1829),  an  excellent  architect  whose 


98 


THE  GLORIES  01^  IRELAND 


chief  claim  to  remembrance,  however,  is  as  founder  of  the 
Royal  Hibernian  Academy;  and,  above  all,  James  Gandon 
(1743-18233,  whose  superb  Custom  House,  Four  Courts,  and 
part  of  the  Irish  Parliament  House  will  perpetuate  his  name  in 
Dublin  while  that  city  lasts — each  helped  to  make  the  capital, 
even  in  its  decay,  one  of  the  most  interesting  in  Europe.  Nor 
should  we  forget  Thomas  Ivory  (d.  1786),  whose  Foundling 
Hospital  is  another  of  Dublin's  many  graceful  edifices;  nor 
Sir  Richard  Morrison  (1767-1849)  and  his  son  William  (1794- 
1838),  much  of  whose  work  remains  to  testify  to  their  skill 
and  ingenuity. 

Ecclesiastical  architecture  in  Ireland  is  indebted  to  Patrick 
Byrne  (fl.  1840),  James  J.  McCarthy  (d.  1882),  J.  B.  Keane 
(d.  1859),  and  James  Murray  (1831-1863),  for  many  well 
designed  churches  and  chapels  throughout  Ireland;  but  the 
great  names  in  modern  Irish  architecture  are  those  of  Benja- 
min Woodward  (1815-1861),  whose  premature  death  was  a 
serious  loss  to  Irish  art;  Sir  Thomas  Deane  (1792-1871)  ;  and 
his  son.  Sir  Thomas  Newenham  Deane  (1828-1899).  The 
elder  Deane  was,  with  Woodward,  the  architect  of  the  Oxford 
Museum  and  of  the  splendid  Engineering  Hall  of  Trinity 
College,  Dublin,  buildings  which  have  elicited  enthusiastic 
praise  from  John  Ruskin  and  other  eminent  critics.  Deserving 
of  respectful  mention,  too,  to  come  down  to  our  own  days,  are 
Sir  Thomas  Drew  (1838-1910)  and  William  H.  Lynn,  who  is 
still  living. 

In  sculpture,  again,  Ireland  has  done  memorable  work.  In 
the  eighteenth  century  she  gave  us  admirable  craftsmen  like 
Edward  Smyth  (1749-1812),  John  Hickey  (1756-1795),  and 
Christopher  Hewitson  (fl.  1772-1794),  whose  dignified  monu- 
ment of  Bishop  Baldwin  is  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
pieces  of  sculpture  in  Trinity  College,  Dublin.  But  it  was  not 
till  the  appearance  of  a  later  group  of  sculptors,  including 
John  Hogan  (1800-1858),  John  Edward  Carew  (1785-1868), 
John  Henry  Foley,  R.  A.  (1818-1874),  and  Patrick  Mac- 
Dowell,  R.  A.  (1799-1870),  that  Irish  sculpture  obtained  more 
than  local  renown.  Fortunately,  most  of  the  best  work  of 
Hogan  and  Foley  remains  in  Ireland;  that  of  Carew  and 
MacDowell  is  chiefly  to  be  found  in  the  Houses  of  Parlia- 


MODERN  IRISH  ART 


99 


ment  and  other  institutions  in  London.  The  incomparable 
^'Goldsmith,"  "Burke,"  "Grattan,"  and  other  statues  by  Foley, 
together  with  an  almost  complete  collection  of  casts  of  his  other 
works,  are  in  his  native  country.  Hogan  is  represented  in 
Dublin  by  his  "Thomas  Davis"  and  his  "Dead  Christ,"  to  name 
but  two  of  his  principal  works.  The  names  at  least  of  James 
Heffernan  (1785-1847),  of  John  Edward  Jones  (1806-1872), 
of  Terence  Farrell  (1798-1876),  of  Samuel  F.  Lynn  (1834- 
1876),  and  perhaps  of  Christopher  Moore  (1790-1863),  an 
excellent  sculptor  of  busts,  may  be  set  down  here.  Sir  Thomas 
Farrell  (1827-1900)  and  the  living  sculptors,  John  Hughes, 
Oliver  Sheppard,  and  Albert  Bruce  Joy,  are  responsible  for 
some  of  the  more  admirable  of  the  public  monuments  of 
Dublin.  It  is  much  to  be  deplored  that  of  the  work  of  one  of 
the  greatest  of  Dublin-born  artists,  Augustus  Saint  Gaudens, 
we  have  only  one  example — the  statue  of  Parnell.  Ireland 
may  surely  claim  him  as  one  of  her  most  gifted  sons.  And 
perhaps  a  word  might  be  said  in  this  place  of  some  of  the 
other  Irishmen  who  made  their  home  in  America:  of  Hoban 
the  architect  who  designed  the  White  House  at  Washington, 
modelling  it  after  Leinster  House  in  Dublin;  of  painters  like 
Charles  Ingham,  W.  G.  Wall,  William  Magrath,  the  Morans, 
James  Hamilton,  and  Thomas  Hovenden;  and  of  sculptors 
like  John  Donoghue,  John  Flanagan,  Andrew  O'Connor,  John 
F.  Kelly,  Jerome  Connor,  John  J.  Boyle,  and  Martin  Milmore. 
But  they  belong  rather  to  the  history  of  American  art  than 
to  that  of  Ireland. 

Before  leaving  the  subject  of  Irish  sculpture,  the  work  of 
the  medallists,  an  allied  branch  of  the  art  in  which  Irishmen 
did  much  valued  work,  should  not  be  overlooked.  The  medals 
of  William  Mossop  (1751-1805),  of  his  son,  William  Stephen 
Mossop  (1788-1827),  and  of  John  Woodhouse  (1835-1892), 
to  mention  only  three  of  its  chief  representatives  in  Ireland, 
are  greatly  prized  by  collectors. 

Most  modern  Irish  art  of  high  importance  has  been  largely 
produced  out  of  Ireland,  which  has  been  perforce  abandoned 
by  those  artists  who  have  learned  how  little  encouragement  is 
to  be  met  with  at  home.  One  can  blame  neither  the  artist  nor 
the  Irish  public  for  this  unfortunate  result ;  there  is  sufficient 


(8) 


100 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


reason  in  the  political  and  economic  condition  of  Ireland 
since  the  Union  to  explain  the  fact.  But  for  this  cause  men 
like  Daniel  Maclise,  R.  A.  (1806-18T0),  WiUiam  Mul- 
ready,  R.  A.  (1786-1863),  Francis  Danby,  A.  R.  A.  (1793- 
1861),  and  Alfred  Elmore,  R.  A.  (1815-1881),  might 
have  endeavored  to  emulate  the  spirit  of  James  O'Connor 
(1792-1841),  the  landscapist,  Richard  Rothwell  (1800-1868), 
a  charming  subject  painter,  and  Sir  Frederic  W.  Burton  (1816- 
1900),  one  of  the  most  distinguished  artists  of  his  time,  who 
at  least  spent  some  of  their  active  working  career  in  their 
native  land.  The  same  words  apply  to  artists  who  succeeded 
in  other  branches  of  the  profession,  men  like  John  Doyle 
(1797-1868),  a  caricaturist  with  all  the  power,  without  the 
coarseness,  of  his  predecessors;  his  son,  Richard  Doyle  (1824- 
1883),  a  refined  and  delicate  artist;  John  Leech  (1817-1864), 
the  humorist,  a. member  of  an  Irish  Catholic  family;  Paul  Gray 
(1842-1866),  who  died  before  his  powers  had  fully  matured; 
and  Matthew  James  Lawless  (1837-1864),  who  also  died  too 
early.  William  Collins,  R.  A.  (1788-1847)  and  Clarkson 
Stanfield,  R.  A.  (1793-1867),  both  eminent  representatives  of 
English  art,  though  of  Irish  extraction,  more  properly  belong 
to  England  than  to  Ireland. 

Not  discouraged  by  the  melancholy  history  of  many  gifted 
Irish  artists,  Ireland  still  produces  men  who  are  not  unworthy 
of  association  with  the  best  who  have  gone  before.  Our  most 
recent  losses  have  been  heavy — notably  those  of  Walter  F. 
Osborne  (1859-1903)  and  Patrick  Vincent  Duffy  (1832-1909), 
but  we  still  have  artists  of  genius  in  the  persons  of  Nathaniel 
Hone,  a  direct  descendant  of  his  famous  namesake;  John 
Butler  Yeats;  John  Lavery,  A.  R.  A.;  and  William  Orpen, 
A.  R.  A.  Many  other  names  might  be  given,  but  already  this 
attempt  at  a  sur\-ey  suffers  by  its  eniuneration  of  artists,  who, 
however,  could  hardly  be  neglected  in  such  a  record. 

Crowded  as  the  list  may  be,  it  is  a  careful  selection,  and  it 
demonstrates  that,  notwithstanding  all  the  disadvantages  under 
which  Ireland  suffers,  the  country  has  an  almost  unlimited 
capacity  for  fine  achievement,  and  that,  with  prosperity  and 
contentment,  she  may  be  expected  to  rival  the  most  illustrious 
of  art  centres.    It  is  only  within  living  memory  that  any 


SlOD^RN  IRISH  ART 


101 


attempt  has  been  made  to  direct  the  known  artistic  skill  of  the 
Irish  people  to  industrial  effort.  But  the  remarkable  success 
achieved  in  the  modern  designs  for  Irish  lace  in  the  English 
art  competitions  is  an  instance  of  what  might  be  done  generally 
in  the  applied  arts.  Though  they  are  in  their  infancy,  the  new 
carpet  and  stained  glass  industries  in  Ireland  also  hold  out 
considerable  hope  for  the  future.  But  one  can  only  barely 
indicate  what  has  been  and  might  be  done  in  the  furtherance 
of  Irish  art.  If  we  only  had  under  one  roof  a  judiciously 
made  collection  of  all  the  best  work  done  by  Irish  artists  of  all 
styles  and  periods,  it  would  more  eloquently  justify  our  claim 
than  endless  columns  of  praise. 

Befebences  : 

Anthony  Pasquin  [John  Williams]:  History  of  Professors  of 
Painting  in  Ireland  (1795);  T.  J.  Mulvany:  Life  of  James  GaDdon; 
John  O'Keeffe:  Reminiscences,  vol.  I;  Taft:  American  Sculpture; 
W.  G.  Strickland;  Dictionary  of  Irish  Artists  (2  vols.,  1913). 


IRELAND  AT  PLAY 


By  Thomas  E.  Healy, 
Editor  of  "Sport/'  Dublin. 

ON  the  face  of  the  earth  there  is  no  nation  in  which  the 
love  of  clean  and  wholesome  sport  is  more  strongly 
developed  than  in  the  Irish.  Against  us  it  cannot  be  urged  that 
we  take  our  pleasures  sadly.  We  enter  into  them  with  entire 
self-abandon,  whole-hearted  enthusiasm,  and  genuine  exuber- 
ance of  spirit.  There  is  nothing  counterfeit  about  the  Irish- 
man in  his  play.  His  one  keen  desire  is  to  win,  be  the  contest 
what  it  may ;  and  towards  the  achievement  of  that  end  he  will 
strain  nerve  and  muscle  even  to  the  point  of  utter  exhaustion. 
And  how  the  onlookers  applaud  at  the  spectacle  of  a  desper- 
ately contested  race,  whether  between  horses,  men,  motor- 
cars, bicycles,  or  boats,  or  of  a  match  between  football,  hurl- 
ing, or  cricket  teams!  It  matters  not  which  horse,  man,  car, 
cycle,  boat,  or  team  is  successful:  the  sport  is  the  thing  that 
counts ;  the  strenuousness  of  the  contest  is  what  stimulates  and 
evokes  the  rapturous  applause.  At  such  a  moment  it  is  good 
to  be  alive.  Scenes  similar  to  those  hinted  at  may  be  witnessed 
on  any  sports-field  or  racetrack  in  our  dear  little  Emerald  Isle 
almost  any  day  of  the  year.  All  is  good  fellowship;  all  is  in 
the  cause  of  sport. 

No  one  can  question  that  in  some  departments  of  horse- 
racing  Ireland  is  today  supreme.  The  Irish  devotion  to  the 
horse  is  of  no  recent  growth.  Everybody  knows  how,  in  the 
dim  and  distant  days  when  King  Conor  macNessa  ruled  at 
Emain,  the  war-steeds  of  the  Ultonians  neighed  loudly  in  their 
stalls  on  the  first  dramatic  appearance  of  Cuchulainn  of  Muir- 
themne  at  the  northern  court.  Cuchulainn's  own  two  steeds, 
Liath  Macha,  "the  Roan  of  Macha",  and  Dub  Sainglenn,  "Black 
Sanglan",  are  celebrated  in  story  and  song : 

Never  hoofs  like  them  shall  ring. 
Rapid  as  the  winds  of  spring. 

To  read  of  the  performances  of  Cuchulainn  and  his  war- 
horses  and  his  charioteer  and  friend,  Laeg  macRiangabra,  at 


IRELAND  AT  PLAY 


103 


the  famous  battle  of  Rosnaree,  and  again  at  the  last  fight  be- 
tween the  Red  Branch  Knights  and  the  forces  of  Queen  Medb 
of  Connacht,  does  truly,  in  the  words  used  by  Sir  Philip  Sidney 
in  another  connection,  stir  the  heart  like  the  sound  of  a 
trumpet. 

As  time  went  on,  the  Irish  war-horse  became  more  and  more 
famous,  and  always  carried  his  rider  in  gallant  style.  Stout 
was  the  steed  that,  bestridden  by  Godfrey  O'Donnell  at  the 
battle  of  Credan-Kille,  withstood  the  shock  of  Lord  Maurice 
Fitzgerald's  desperate  onslaught,  and  by  his  steadiness  enabled 
the  Tyrconnell  chieftain  to  strike  senseless  and  unhorse  his 
fierce  Norman  foe.  More  celebrated  still  was  the  high-spirited 
animal  which  Art  MacMurrogh  rode  in  1399  to  his  ineffectual 
parley  with  King  Richard  the  Second's  representative,  the 
Earl  of  Gloucester.  The  French  chronicler  who  was  a  witness 
of  that  historic  scene  tells  us  that  a  horse  more  exquisitely 
beautiful,  more  marvellously  fleet,  he  had  never  seen.  "In 
coming  down,"  he  says,  "it  galloped  so  hard  that,  in  my  opin- 
ion, I  never  saw  hare,  deer,  sheep,  or  any  other  animal,  I 
declare  to  you  for  a  certainty,  run  with  such  speed  as  it  did." 
Edmund  Spenser,  the  poet  of  The  Faerie  Queene,  writing  in 
1596,  bears  this  striking  testimony  to  the  Irish  horse-soldier 
and  inferentially  to  the  Irish  horse :  "I  have  hearde  some 
greate  warriours  say,  that,  in  all  the  services  which  they  had 
seene  abroade  in  forrayne  countreys,  they  never  sawe  a  more 
comely  horseman  than  the  Irish  man,  nor  that  cometh  on  more 
bravely  in  his  charge."  The  feats  performed  at  the  Battle  of 
the  Boyne,  in  1690,  by  the  Irish  horse-soldiers  under  Hamilton 
and  Berwick  were  really  wonderful,  and  well-nigh  turned  dis- 
aster into  victory  on  that  memorable  day  which  decided  the 
fate  of  nations  as  well  as  of  dynasties.  And  surely  those  were 
fleet  and  stout-hearted  steeds  that,  on  August  12,  1690,  car- 
ried Sarsfield  and  his  chosen  five  hundred  on  their  dare-devil 
midnight  ride  from  the  Keeper  Hills  to  Ballyneety,  where  in 
the  dim  morning  twilight  they  captured  and  destroyed  William 
of  Orange's  wonderful  siege-train,  and  thereby  heartened  the 
defenders  of  beleaguered  Limerick. 

Writing  in  1809,  Lawrence,  in  his  History  and  Delineation 
of  the  Horse,  said:  "From  Ireland  alone  we  import  [into 


104 


THE  GLORIES  IRELAND 


England]  many  saddle  horses,  as  many  perhaps  as  1,500  in  a 
year;  upwards  in  some  years.  The  Irish  are  the  highest  and 
steadiest  leapers  in  the  world.  Ireland  has  bred  some  good 
racers,  and  the  generality  of  Irish  horses  are,  it  appears, 
warmer  tempered  than  our  own;  and,  to  use  the  expression, 
sharper  and  more  frigate-built." 

It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  therefore  if  in  such  a  country 
there  developed  an  ardent  love  of  the  noble  sport  of  horse- 
racing.  The  Curragh  of  Kildare,  the  long-standing  head- 
quarters of  the  Irish  Turf  Club,  was  celebrated  far  back  in 
the  eighteenth  century  as  the  venue  of  some  great  equine  con- 
tests; and  to  this  day,  with  its  five  important  fixtures  every 
year,  it  still  holds  pride  of  place.  There  are  numerous  other 
race-courses  all  over  the  country,  from  Punchestown,  Leop- 
ardstown,  Phoenix  Park,  and  Baldoyle  in  the  east  to  Galway 
in  the  west,  and  from  The  Maze  in  the  north  to  rebel  Cork  in 
the  south.  Horse-racing  has  not  inappropriately  been  termed 
the  national  pastime  of  Ireland.  The  number  of  people  now 
giving  their  attention  to  it  has  called  for  a  notable  increase  in 
the  number  of  race-meetings,  and  stake-money  is  being  put  up 
on  a  more  generous  scale  than  at  any  previous  time  in  the 
history  of  the  sport.  For  example,  the  Irish  Derby,  run  at 
the  Curragh,  was  in  1914  worth  £2,500 ;  and  there  are  besides 
several  stakes  of  £1,500  and  £1,000.  The  result  of  this  for- 
ward policy  is  that  increasing  numbers  come  to  our  race- 
meetings  and  that  the  turf  has  never  been  more  popular  than 
it  is  today.  Men  and  women  of  wealth  and  position  find  in 
the  national  pastime  a  pleasant  method  of  employing  their 
leisure,  and  in  expending  their  surplus  wealth  in  its  pursuit 
and  in  the  raising  of  horses  of  the  highest  class  they  realize 
that  they  confer  a  real  benefit  on  the  country. 

It  is,  of  course,  now  universally  known  that  Ireland  has  an 
international  reputation  as  a  country  eminently  fitted  for  horse- 
breeding.  If  proof  were  needed,  it  would  be  found  in  the 
extensive  purchases  effected  by  English,  French,  Italian,  Ger- 
man, Russian,  and  American  buyers  at  the  great  Dublin  Horse 
Show  held  in  August  every  year.  Horses  bought  in  Ireland 
have  seldom  failed  to  realize  their  promise.  The  English 
classic  races  and  many  of  the  principal  handicaps  on  the  flat 


IRELAND  AT  PIJVY 


105 


have  been  often  won  by  Irish-bred  horses,  such  as  Galtee 
More,  Ard  Patrick,  Orby,  Kilwarlin,  Barcaldine,  Umpire, 
Master  Kildare,  Kilsallaghan,  Bendigo,  Philomel,  The  Re- 
jected, Comedy,  Winkfield's  Pride,  Bellevin,  Royal  Flush, 
Victor  Wild,  Bachelor's  Button,  Irish  Ivy,  and  Hackler's 
Pride.  If  only  a  few  of  the  star  performers  are  here  set 
down,  it  is  not  from  lack  of  means  to  continue,  but  merely 
from  a  desire  to  avoid  the  compilation  of  a  mere  string  of 
names.  In  France,  too,  the  Irish  racer  has  made  his  mark. 
It  is,  however,  in  the  four-and-a-half  miles'  Liverpool  Grand 
National  Steeplechase,  the  greatest  cross-country  race  in  the 
world,  the  supreme  test  of  the  leaper,  galloper,  and  stayer, 
that  Irish-bred  horses  have  made  perhaps  the  most  wonderful 
record.  The  list  of  winners  of  that  great  event  demonstrates 
in  an  unmistakable  manner  that  we  are  second  to  none  in  the 
art  of  breeding  steeplechase  horses.  Among  many  other  noted 
Irish-bred  winners  of  this  race  there  stand  boldly  forth  the 
names  of  The  Lamb,  Empress,  Woodbrook,  Frigate,  Come 
Away,  Cloister,  Wild  Man  from  Borneo,  and  Manifesto.  In 
fact,  it  is  the  exception  when  another  than  an  Irish-bred  horse 
annexes  the  blue  riband  of  steeplechasing. 

Closely  allied  to  horse-racing  is  fox-hunting,  and  fox- 
hunting, as  well  as  the  hunting  of  the  stag  and  of  the  hare,  has 
flourished  exceedingly  in  Ireland  for  a  long  time  past.  A 
great  deal  of  needed  employment  is  one  of  the  results.  Dogs 
are  specially  bred  and  trained  for  each  of  these  branches  of 
sport.  Irish  foxhounds,  staghounds,  harriers,  and  beagles  have 
a  high  reputation.  More  native  to  the  soil,  and  so  interwoven 
with  the  history  of  the  country  that  it  is  often  used  as  one  of 
its  symbols,  is  the  Irish  wolfhound.  This  is  probably  the 
animal  to  which  Aurelius  Symmachus,  a  Roman  consul  in 
Britain,  referred  when,  writing  to  his  brother  in  Ireland  in 
A.  D.  391,  he  acknowledged  the  receipt  of  seven  Irish  hounds. 
The  wolfhound  played  a  sinister  part  in  the  Irish  history  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  for,  as  Davis  says  in  his  poem,  "The 
Penal  Days": 

Their  dogs  were  taught  alike  to  run 
Upon  the  scent  of  wolf  and  friar. 


106 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


The  Irish  wolfhound  is  no^y  very  scarce,  and  a  genuine 
specimen  is  a  valued  and  highly  coveted  possession.  The 
greyhound,  too,  figures  prominently  in  present-day  sport,  and 
in  many  parts  of  the  country  are  held  coursing  meetings, 
which  frequently  result  in  several  spirited  contests.  A  famous 
Irish  greyhound  was  Lord  Lurgan's  black  and  white  dog. 
Master  McGrath.  Master  McGrath  achieved  the  rare  dis- 
tinction of  winning  the  Waterloo  Cup  three  times,  in  1868, 
1869,  and  1871.  When  it  is  remembered  that  the  Waterloo 
Cup  is  to  coursing  what  the  Liverpool  Grand  National  is  to 
steeplechasing,  or  the  Epsom  Derby  to  flat  racing,  the  merit 
of  this  triple  performance  will  at  once  be  apparent. 

Compared  with  the  sports  in  which  horse  and  hound  par- 
ticipate, all  other  outdoor  pastimes  in  Ireland  take  rather  a 
minor  place.  Still,  the  Irishman's  love  of  sport  is  diversified. 
Few  there  are  who  have  not  many  inclinations,  and  as  a  nation 
our  taste  in  sport  is  catholic.  We  take  part  in  nearly  every 
pastime;  in  many  we  excel.  The  prize  ring  has  fallen  from 
its  high  estate,  nor  is  it  the  intention  here  to  try  to  cast  any 
glamour  over  it.  The  subject  is  introduced,  in  a  passing  way, 
for  the  sole  purpose  of  showing  that,  in  what  at  least  used  to  be 
the  manly  art  of  self-defense,  Ireland  in  days  gone  by  as  well 
as  at  the  present  time  has  more  than  held  her  own.  The  most 
conspicuous  of  the  representatives  of  her  race  in  this  depart- 
ment are  perhaps  Heenan,  Ryan,  Sullivan,  Corbett,  Maher, 
McAuliflie,  McFarland,  and  McGoorty.  There  is  one  other 
prize-fighter,  Dan  Donnelly  by  name,  who  became  a  sort  of 
national  hero,  of  whom  all  Irishmen  of  his  day  were  not  a 
little  proud,  because  he  laid  the  English  champion  low,  and 
whose  performance,  now  haloed  by  the  antiquity  of  more  than 
a  hundred  years,  we  may  with  equanimity,  as  without  offense, 
contemplate,  with  perhaps  a  sigh  for  the  good  old  times.  The 
famous  encounter  between  Donnell  yand  Cooper  took  place  on 
the  Curragh,  and  after  eleven  rounds  of  scientific  boxing  Don- 
nelly knocked  his  opponent  over  the  ropes  and  won  the  world's 
championship  for  the  Emerald  Isle.  The  spot  where  the  battle 
came  off  has  ever  since  been  known  as  Donnelly's  Hollow,  and 
a  neat  monument  there  erected  commemorates  the  Dublin 
man's  pluck  and  skill.   A  ballad  recounting  the  incidents  of  the 


IRELAND  AT  PLAY 


107 


fight  and,  as  ballads  go,  not  badly  composed,  had  a  wonderful 
vogue,  and  was  sung  at  fair  and  market  and  other  meeting 
place  within  the  memory  of  men  who  are  not  now  more  than 
middle-aged. 

A  search  in  other  domains  of  sport  will  be  by  no  means 
barren  of  results.  Take  running,  for  instance.  Who  has  not 
heard  of  the  wondrous  little  Thomas  Conneff  from  the  short- 
grass  county  of  Kildare?  Who  does  not  know  of  his  brilliant 
performances  on  the  track?  We  in  Ireland,  who  had  seen 
him  defeat  Carter,  the  great  Canadian,  over  the  four-mile 
course  at  Ballsbridge  one  summer's  eve  now  nearly  twenty 
golden  years  ago,  knew  his  worth  before  he  crossed  the  broad 
Atlantic  to  show  to  thousands  of  admiring  spectators  in 
America  that  Ireland  was  the  breeder  of  fleet-footed  sons, 
who  lacked  neither  the  courage,  nor  the  thews  and  sinews,  nor 
the  staying  power,  to  carry  them  at  high  speed  over  any  dis- 
tance of  ground.  May  the  earth  lie  light  on  Conneff,  for  in  a 
small  body  he  had  a  great  heart !  Then  there  was  the  mighty 
runner,  James  J.  Daly,  a  true  hero  from  Galway,  the  idol  of 
the  crowd  in  his  native  land  as  well  as  in  the  United  States. 
Daly  was  the  champion  long  distance  cross-country  runner  of 
his  day  at  home,  and  he  showed  before  various  nationalities 
in  the  Greater  Ireland  beyond  the  seas  that  he  could  success- 
fully compete  with  the  best  from  all  countries. 

In  high  jumping,  Patrick  Davin,  P.  Leahy,  and  Peter  O'Con- 
nor were  for  long  in  the  foremost  rank ;  Daniel  Ahearne  was 
famous  for  his  hop-step-and-jump  performance;  Maurice 
Davin,  Matthew  McGrath,  and  Patrick  Ryan  have,  each  in  his 
own  day,  thrown  the  16-pound  hammer  to  record  distance;  in 
shot-putting  there  are  Sheridan,  Horgan,  John  Flanagan,  and 
others  bearing  true  Irish  names,  who  are  right  in  front;  and 
before  their  time  we  had  a  redoubted  champion  in  W.  J.  M. 
Barry.  All  previous  performances  in  thev  shot-putting  line 
have,  however,  been  recently  eclipsed  by  Patrick  J.  McDonald, 
of  the  Irish- American  Club,  who  at  Celtic  Park,  Long  Island, 
on  May  30,  1914,  made  a  new  world's  record  by  putting  the 
18-pound  shot  46  feet  2}i  inches.  The  climax  of  achievement 
was  reached  when  T.  F.  Kiely  won  the  all-round  championship 
of  the  world  at  New  York.   The  distinguished  part  taken  by 


108 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


Irishmen  or  sons  of  Irishmen  in  all  departments  of  the  Olym- 
pic games  is  so  recent  and  so  well  known  as  to  call  for  no 
comment.  Ireland  is  far  indeed  from  being  degenerate  in  her 
athletes. 

In  international  strife  with  England,  Scotland,  Wales,  and 
France  at  Rugby  football,  Ireland  has  likewise  won  her  spurs. 
She  has  never  been  beaten  by  the  representatives  of  Gaul; 
and  though  for  long  enough  she  had  invariably  to  succumb  in 
competition  with  the  other  three  countries,  such  is  not  the  case 
nowadays,  nor  has  it  been  for  many  years  past.  The  Irish 
team  has  ever  to  be  reckoned  with.  In  Association  football, 
too,  Ireland  is  coming  into  her  own.  This  branch  of  the  game 
has  developed  enormously  w-ithin  a  comparatively  few  seasons. 
The  people  flock  in  their  thousands  to  witness  matches  for  the 
principal  league  contests  or  cup  ties.  But  the  greatest  crowds 
of  all  go  to  see  Gaelic  football,  the  national  game ;  and  to  hurl- 
ing, also  distinctively  Irish,  they  foregather  in  serried  masses. 
Since  the  Gaelic  Athletic  Association  was  founded  both  foot- 
ball and  hurling  have  prospered  exceedingly.  They  are  essen- 
tially popular  forms  of  sport,  and  the  muscular  manhood  of 
city  and  country  finds  in  them  a  natural  outlet  for  their  char- 
acteristic Celtic  vigor.  The  Gaelic  Association  has  fostered 
and  developed  these  sports,  and  has  organized  them  on  so 
sound  a  basis  that  interest  in  them  is  not  confined  to  any  par- 
ticular district  but  spreads  throughout  the  length  and  breadth 
of  Ireland. 

When  the  America  Cup  was  to  be  challenged  for,  into  the 
breach  stepped  the  Earl  of  Dunraven  and  flung  his  gage  to 
the  holders  of  the  trophy.  This  distinguished  Irish  nobleman 
furnished  a  contender  in  his  Valkyrie  II.  in  the  fall  of  1893, 
and  his  patriotic  spirit  in  doing  so  stirred  the  sport-loving 
Irish  nation  to  the  greatest  enthusiasm.  His  lordship  was  not 
successful,  but  he  was  not  disheartened.  He  tried  again  with 
Valkyrie  III.,  but  again  he  was  only  second  best,  for,  though 
his  yacht  sailed  to  victory  in  home  waters,  she  proved  unequal 
to  the  task  of  lifting  the  cup.  No  Englishman  was  prepared 
to  tempt  fortune,  but  not  so  that  sterling  Irishman,  Sir  Thomas 
Lipton,  who,  win  or  lose,  would  not  have  it  laid  to  the  charge 
of  Ireland  that  an  attempt  should  not  be  made.    His  Sham- 


IREI.AND  AT  PLAY 


109 


rock,  Shamrock  II.,  and  Shamrock  III. — surely  a  deep  sense 
of  patriotism  prompted  nomenclature  such  as  that — each  in 
succession  went  down  to  defeat ;  but  Sir  Thomas  has  not  done 
yet.  Like  King  Bruce,  he  is  going  to  try  again,  and  Sham- 
rock IV.  is  to  do  battle  with  the  best  that  America  can  range 
against  her.  All  honor  to  Lord  Dunraven  and  to  Sir  Thomas 
Lipton  for  their  persistent  efforts  to  engage  in  generous  rivalry 
with  the  yachtsmen  across  the  sea. 

Lawn-tennis,  cricket,  and  golf  we  play,  and  play  well;  to 
rowing  many  of  us  are  enthusiastically  devoted ;  and  at  hancf- 
ball  our  young  men — and  some  not  so  young — are  signally 
expert.  The  champion  handball  player  has  always  been  of 
Irish  blood.  Baseball  we  invented — and  called  it  rounders.  It 
is  significant  that  the  great  American  ball  game  is  still  played 
according  to  a  code  which  is  scarcely  modified  from  that  which 
may  be  seen  in  force  any  summer  day  on  an  Irish  school  field 
or  village  green.  Perhaps  something  of  hereditary  instinct  is 
to  be  traced  in  the  fact  that  many  of  the  best  exponents  of 
American  baseball  are  the  bearers  of  fine  old  Irish  names. 

This  brief  and  cursory  review  of  Ireland  at  Play  must  now 
conclude.  It  is  scarcely  more  than  a  glossary,  and  not  a  com- 
plete one  at  that.  It  may,  however,  serve  to  show  that  Ire- 
land's record  in  sport,  like  her  record  in  so  many  other  things 
set  forth  in  this  book,  is  great  and  glorious  enough  to  warrant 
the  insertion  of  this  short  chapter  among  those  which  tell  of 
old  achievements  and  feats  of  high  emprize. 

References  : 

Racing— Irish  Racing  Calendar:  1790-1914,  124  vols.  (Dublin, 

Brindley  and  Son);  The  Racing  Calendar:  1774-1914  (London, 
Weatherby  and  Sons).  Breeding— The  General  Stud  Book:  1908-1913, 
22  vols.  (London,  Weatherby  and  Sons).  Racing  and  Breeding  Gen- 
erally— Cox:  Notes  on  the  History  of  the  Irish  Horse  (Dublin,  1897). 
Boxing  and  Athletics — Files  of  Sport  and  Freeman's  Journal. 


THE  FIGHTING  RACE 


By  Joseph  I.  C.  Clarke, 
President,  American  Irish  Historical  Society. 

I. — The  Fighting  Race  at  Home. 

"War  was  the  ruling  passion  of  this  people,"  says  Mac- 
Geoghegan,  meaning  the  Milesians  who  were  the  latest  of  the 
peoples  that  overran  ancient  Ireland  up  to  the  coming  of 
Christ.  How  many  races  had  preceded  them  remains  an  enig- 
ma of  history  not  profitable  to  examine  here,  but  whoever  they 
were,  or  in  what  succession  they  arrived,  they  must,  like  all 
migrating  people,  have  been  prepared  to  establish  themselves 
at  the  point  of  the  spear  and  the  edge  of  the  sword.  Two  races 
certainly  were  mingled  in  the  ancient  Irish,  the  fair  or  auburn 
haired  with  blue  eyes,  and  the  dark  haired  with  eyes  of  gray  or 
brown.  The  Milesians  appear  to  have  reached  Ireland 
through  Spain.  They  came  swiftly  to  power,  more  than  a 
thousand  years  before  our  Lord,  and  divided  the  country  into 
four  provinces  or  kingdoms,  with  an  ard-ri,  or  high-king, 
ruling  all  in  a  loose  way  as  to  service,  taxes,  and  allegiance. 
The  economic  life  was  almost  entirely  pastoral.  Riches  were 
counted  in  herds  of  cattle.  ''Robustness  of  frame,  vehemence 
of  passion,  elevated  imagination,"  Dr.  Leland  says,  signalized 
this  people.  Robust,  they  became  athletic  and  vigorous  and 
excelled  in  the  use  of  deadly  weapons ;  passionate,  they  easily 
went  from  litigation  to  blows ;  imaginative,  they  leaned  to- 
ward poetry  and  song  and  were  strong  for  whatever  religion 
they  practised.  The  latter  was  a  polytheism  brought  close 
to  the  people  through  the  Druids.  Some  stone  weapons  were 
doubtless  still  used ;  they  had  also  brazen  or  bronze  swords, 
and  spears,  axes,  and  maces  of  various  alloys  of  copper  and 
tin.  Socially  they  remained  tribal.  Heads  of  tribes  were 
petty  kings,  each  with  his  stronghold  of  a  primitive  character, 
each  with  his  tribal  warriors,  bards,  harpers,  and  druids,  and 
the  whole  male  population  more  or  less  ready  to  take  part  in 
war. 

The  great  heroes  whose  names  have  come  down  to  us,  such 


THE  FIGHTING  RACE 


111 


a3  Finn,  son  of  Cumhal,  and  Cuchulainn,  were  reared  in  a 
school  of  arms.  Bravery  was  the  sign  of  true  manhood.  A 
law  of  chivalry  moderated  the  excess  of  combat.  A  trained 
militia,  the  Fianna,  gave  character  to  an  era;  the  Knights 
of  the  Red  Branch  were  the  distinguishing  order  of  chevaliers. 
The  songs  of  the  bards  were  songs  of  battle;  the  great  Irish 
epic  of  antiquity  was  the  Tain  Bo  Cualnge,  or  Cooley  Cattle- 
raid,  and  it  is  full  of  combats  and  feats  of  strength  and 
prowess.  High  character  meant  high  pride,  always  ready  to 
give  account  of  itself  and  strike  for  its  ideals :  "Irritable  and 
bold",  as  one  historian  has  it.  They  were  jealous  and  quick 
to  anger,  but  light-hearted  laughter  came  easily  to  the  lips 
of  the  ancient  Irish.  They  worked  cheerfully,  prayed  fer- 
vently to  their  gods,  loved  their  women  and  children  de- 
votedly, clung  passionately  to  their  clan,  and  fought  at  the 
call  with  alacrity. 

Nothing,  it  will  be  seen,  could  be  further  from  the  minds 
of  such  a  people  than  submission  to  what  they  deemed  m- 
justice.  The  habit  of  a  proud  freedom  was  ingrained.  Their 
little  island  of  32,000  square  miles  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  the 
outpost  of  Europe,  lay  isolated  save  for  occasional  forays  to 
and  from  the  coasts  of  Scotland  and  England.  The  Roman 
invasions  of  western  Europe  never  reached  it.  England  the 
Romans  overran,  but  never  Scotland  or  Ireland.  Self-con- 
tained, Ireland  developed  a  civilization  peculiarly  its  own,  the 
product  of  an  intense,  imaginative,  fighting  race.  War  was 
not  constant  among  them  by  any  means,  an3  occupied  only 
small  portions  of  the  Island  at  a  time,  but,  since  the  bards* 
best  work  was  war  sonors  and  war  histories,  with  much  brag- 
gadocio doubtless  intermixed,  a  different  impression  might 
prevail.  Half  of  their  kings  may  have  been  killed  in  broil  or 
battle,  and  yet  great  wars  were  few.  It  is  undoubted  that 
Scotic,  that  is,  Irish,  invasion  and  immigration  peopled  the 
western  shores  of  Scotland  and  gave  a  name  to  the  country. 
In  the  first  centuries  of  the  Christian  era  thev  were  the  men 
who  with  the  Picts  fought  the  Romans  at  the  wall  of  Sev- 
erus.  The  Britons,  it  will  be  remembered,  enervated  by  Ro- 
man dominance,  had  failed  to  defend  their  "border"  when 
Rome  first  withdrew  her  legions. 


112 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


At  this  time,  too,  began  the  first  appearance  of  Ireland  as  a 
power  on  the  sea.  In  the  fourth  century  the  high-king,  Niall 
of  the  Hostages,  commanding  a  large  fleet  of  war  galleys,  in- 
vaded Scotland,  ravaged  the  English  coasts,  and  conquered 
Armorica  (Brittany),  penetrating  as  far  as  the  banks  of  the 
Loire,  where,  according  to  the  legend,  he  was  slain  by  an 
arrow  shot  by  one  of  his  own  men.  One  of  the  captives  he 
brought  from  abroad  on  one  of  his  early  expeditions  was 
a  youth  named  Patrick,  afterwards  to  be  the  Apostle  of  Ire- 
land. Niall's  nephew,  Dathi,  also  ard-ri,  was  a  great  sea 
king.  He  invaded  England,  crossed  to  Gaul,  and  marched 
as  far  as  the  Alps,  where  he  was  killed  by  lightning.  He  was 
the  last  pagan  king  of  Ireland.  In  perhaps  a  score  of  years 
after  the  death  of  Dathi,  all  Ireland  had  been  converted  to 
Christianity,  and  its  old  religion  of  a  thousand  years  buried  so 
deep  that  scholars  find  the  greatest  difficulty  in  recovering 
anything  about  it.  This  conser\'ative,  obstinate,  jealous  people 
overturned  its  pagan  altars  in  a  night,  and,  ever  since,  has  never 
put  into  anything  else  the  devotion,  soul  and  body,  of  its  sacri- 
fices for  religion.  Christianity  profoundly  modified  Irish 
life,  softened  manners,  and  stimulated  learning.  Not  that  the 
fighting  propensities  were  obliterated.  There  were  indeed 
many  long  and  peaceful  reigns,  but  the  historians  record  neat 
little  wars,  seductive  forays  and  "hostings",  to  use  the  new-old 
word,  to  the  heart's  content.  The  Irish  character  remained 
fixed  in  its  essentials,  but,  under  the  influence  of  religious  en- 
thusiasm, Ireland  progressed  and  prospered  in  the  arts  of 
peace.  It  would  undoubtedly  have  shared  the  full  progress  of 
western  Europe  from  this  time  on,  but  for  its  insularity. 
Hitherto  its  protection,  it  w^as  now  to  be  its  downfall.  A  hos- 
tile power  was  growing  of  which  it  knew  nothing. 

The  Norsemen — the  hardy  vikings  of  Nonvay.  Sweden,  and 
Denmark — had  become  a  nation  of  pirates.  Undaunted  fight- 
ers and  able  mariners,  they  built  their  shapely  long  ships  and 
galleys  of  the  northern  pine  and  oak,  and  swept  hardily  down 
on  the  coasts  of  England,  Ireland,  France,  Spain,  and  Italy, 
and  the  lands  of  the  Levant,  surprising,  massacring,  plundering. 
In  France  (Normandy),  in  England,  and  lastly  in  Ireland  they 
planted  colonies.  Their  greatest  success  was  in  England,  which 


THE  FIGHTING  RACE 


118 


they  conquered,  Canute  becoming  king.  Their  greatest  battles 
and  final  defeat  were  in  Ireland.  From  the  end  of  the  eighth 
century  to  the  beginning  of  the  eleventh  the  four  shores  of 
Erin  v/ere  attacked  in  turn,  and  sometimes  all  together,  by 
successive  fleets  of  the  Norsemen.  The  waters  that  had  been 
Ireland's  protection  now  became  the  high  roads  of  the  in- 
vaders. By  the  river  Shannon  they  pushed  their  conquests 
into  the  heart  of  the  country.  Dublin  Bay,  Waterford  Har- 
bor, Belfast  Lough,  and  the  Cove  of  Cork  offered  shelter  to 
their  vessels.  They  established  themselves  in  Dublin  and 
raided  the  country  around.  Churches  and  monasteries  were 
sacked  and  burned.  To  the  end  these  Norsemen  were  rob- 
bers rather  than  settlers.  To  these  onslaughts  by  the  myriad 
wasps  of  the  northern  seas,  again  and  again  renewed,  the 
Irish  responded  manfully.  In  813  they  drove  off  the  invaders 
with  great  slaughter,  only  to  find  fresh  hordes  descending  a 
year  or  two  later.  In  the  tenth  century,  Turgesius,  the  Danish 
leader,  called  himself  monarch  of  Ireland,  but  he  was  driven 
out  by  the  Irish  king,  Malachi.  The  great  effort  which  really 
broke  the  Danish  power  forever  in  Ireland  was  at  the  bat- 
tle of  Clontarf,  on  Dublin  Bay,  Good  Friday,  1014,  when  King 
Brian  Boru,  at  the  head  of  30,000  men,  utterly  defeated  the 
Danes  of  Dublin  and  the  Danes  of  oversea.  Fragments  of 
the  Northmen  remained  all  over  Ireland,  but  henceforth  they 
gradually  merged  with  the  Irish  people,  adding  a  notable  ele- 
ment to  itis  blood.  One  of  the  most  grievous  chapters  of 
Irish  history,  the  period  of  Norse  invasion,  literally  shines 
with  Irish  valor  and  tenacity,  undimmed  through  six  fight- 
ing generations.   As  Plowden  says : 

"Ireland  stands  conspicuous  among  the  nations  of  the  uni- 
verse, a  solitary  instance  in  which  neither  the  destructive  hand 
of  time,  nor  the  devastating  arm  of  oppression,  nor  the  widest 
variety  of  changes  in  the  political  system  of  government 
could  alter  or  subdue,  much  less  wholly  extinguish,  the  na- 
tional genius,  spirit,  and  character  of  its  inhabitants."  This 
is  true  not  only  of  the  Danish  wars  which  ended  nine  hundred 
years  ago,  but  of  many  a  dreadful  century  since  and  to  this 
very  day. 

Now  followed  a  troubled  period,  Ireland  weakened  by  loss 


114 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


of  blood  and  treasure,  its  government  failing  of  authority 
through  the  defects  of  its  virtues.  It  was  inevitable,  sooner  or 
later,  that  England,  as  it  became  consolidated  after  its  con- 
quest by  William  the  Xorman,  should  turn  greedy  eyes  on  the 
fair  land  across  the  Irish  sea.  It  v^^as  in  1169  that  "Strong- 
bow" — Richard,  earl  of  Pembroke — came  from  England  at 
the  invitation  of  a  discontented  Irish  chieftain  and  began  the 
conquest  of  Ireland.  Three  years  later  came  Henry  II.  with 
more  troops  and  a  Papal  bull.  After  a  campaign  in  Leinster, 
he  set  himself  up  as  overlord  of  Ireland,  and  then  returned  to 
London.  It  was  the  beginning  only.  An  English  Lord  Deputy 
ruled  the  "Pale",  or  portion  of  Ireland  that  England  held 
more  or  less  securely,  and  from  that  vantage  ground  made 
spasmodic  war  upon  the  rest  of  Ireland,  and  was  forever 
warred  on,  in  large  attacks  and  small,  by  Irish  chieftains. 

The  Irish  were  the  fighting  race  now  if  ever.  Without 
hope  of  outside  assistance,  facing  a  foe  ever  reinforced  from 
a  stronger,  richer,  more  fully  organized  country,  nothing  but 
their  stubborn  character  and  their  fighting  genius  kept  them  in 
the  field.  And  century  out  and  century  in,  they  stayed,  holding 
back  the  foreign  foe  four  hundred  years.  It  is  worthy  of 
note  that  it  was  the  Norman  English,  racial  cousins,  as  it 
were,  of  the  Norsemen,  who  first  wrought  at  the  English 
conquest  of  Ireland.  When  some  of  these  were  seated  in 
Irish  places  of  pride,  when  a  Butler  was  made  Earl  of  Or- 
mond  and  a  Fitzgerald,  Earl  of  Kildare,  it  was  soon  seen  that 
they  were  merging  rapidly  in  the  Irish  mass,  becoming,  as  it 
was  said,  "more  Irish  than  the  Irish  themselves."  Many  were 
the  individual  heroic  efforts  to  strike  down  the  English  power. 
Here  and  there  small  Irish  chiefs  accepted  the  English  rule, 
offsetting  the  Norman  Irish  families  who  at  times  w^ere 
"loyal"  and  at  times  "rebel."  The  state  of  war  became  con- 
tinuous and  internecine,  but  three-fourths  of  Ireland  re- 
mained unconquered.  The  idea  of  a  united  Ireland  against 
England  had,  however,  been  lost  except  in  a  few  exalted  and 
a  few  desperate  breasts.  A  gleam  of  hope  camie  in  1316, 
when,  two  years  after  the  jsrreat  defeat  of  England  by  the 
Scotch  under  Robert  the  Bruce  at  Bannockburn,  Edward, 
the  victor-king's  brother,  came  at  the  invitation  of  the  north- 


THE  LIGHTING  RACE 


11.3 


ern  Irish  to  Ireland  with  6,000  Scots,  landing  near  Carrick- 
fergus.  He  was  proclaimed  king  of  Ireland  by  the  Irish  who 
joined  him.  Battle  after  battle  was  won  by  the  allies.  Ed- 
ward was  a  brilliant  soldier,  lacking,  however,  the  prudence 
of  his  great  brother,  Robert.  The  story  of  his  two  years  of 
fighting,  ravaging,  and  slaying,  is  hard  at  this  distance  to 
reconcile  with  intelligible  strategy.  In  the  end,  in  1318,  the 
gallant  Scot  fell  in  battle  near  Dundalk,  losing  at  the  same 
time  two-thirds  of  his  army.  For  two  years  Scot  and  Irish 
had  fought  victoriously  side  by  side.  That  is  the  fact  of 
moment  that  comes  out  of  this  dark  period. 

The  following  century,  like  that  which  had  gone  before,  was 
full  of  fighting.  In  1399,  on  Richard  IT.'s  second  visit  to  Ire- 
land, he  met  fierce  opposition  from  the  Irish  septs.  MacMor- 
rough,  fighting,  harassing  the  king's  army  from  the  shelter 
of  the  Wicklow  woods,  fairly  drove  the  king  to  Dublin.  The 
sanguinary  "Wars  of  the  Roses" — ^that  thirty  years'  struggle 
for  the  crown  of  England  between  the  royal  houses  of  York 
and  Lancaster,  1455  to  1485 — ^gave  Ireland  a  long  opportunity, 
which,  however,  she  was  too  weak  to  turn  to  advantage;  but 
fighting  between  Irish  and  English  went  on  just  the  same, 
now  in  one  province,  now  in  another. 

In  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  a  revolt  against  England 
started  within  the  Pale  itself,  when  Lord  Thomas  Fitzgerald, 
known  as  Silken  Thomas,  went  before  the  Council  in  Dublin 
and  publicly^  renounced  his  allegiance.  He  took  the  field — a 
brave,  striking  figure — in  protest  ae^ainst  the  king's  bad  faith 
in  dealing  with  his  father,  the  Earl  of  Kildare.  At  one  time 
it  looked  as  if  the  rebellion  (it  was  the  first  real  Irish  rebel- 
lion) would  prosper.  Lord  Thomas  made  combinations  with 
Irish  chieftains  in  the  north  and  west,  and  was  victor  in  sev- 
eral engagements.  He  finally  surrendered  with  assurances  of 
pardon,  but,  as  in  manv  similar  cases,  was  treacherously  sent 
a  prisoner  to  London,  where  he  was  executed. 

Queen  Mary's  reign  was  one  of  comparative  quiet  in  Ire- 
land. Her  policy  towards  the  Catholics  was  held  to  be  of  good 
augury  for  Ireland.  The  English  garrison  was  reduced  with 
impunity  to  500  foot  and  a  few  horse ;  but  another  and  darker 
day  came  with  Elizabeth.  Her  coming  to  the  throne,  to- 
(9) 


116 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


gether  with  her  fanatic  devotion  to  the  Reformation  and  an 
equal  hatred  of  the  old  religion  and  ail  who  clung  to  it,  ushered 
in  for  Ireland  two  and  a  lialf  centuries  of  almost  unbroken 
misfortune.  You  cannot  make  people  over.  Some  may  take 
their  opinions  with  their  interest;  others  prefer  to  die  rather 
than  surrender  theirs,  and  glor}*  in  the  sacrifice.  The  procla- 
mations of  Elizabeth  had  no  persuasion  in  them  for  the  Irish. 
Her  proscriptions  were  only  another  English  sword  at  Ire- 
land's throat.  The  disdain  of  the  Irish  maddened  her.  During 
her  long  reign  one  campaign  after  another  was  launched 
against  them.  Always  fresh  soldier  hordes  came  pouring  in 
under  able  commanders  and  marched  forth  from  the  Pale,  gen- 
erally to  return  shattered  and  worn  down  by  constant  hang- 
ing, sometimes  utterly  defeated  with  great  slaughter.  So  of 
Henry  Sidney's  campaign,  and  so  of  the  ill-fated  Essex. 
"XJlster,  the  stronghold  of  tiie  O'Neills  and  the  O'Donnells,  re- 
mained unconquered  down  to  the  last  years  of  Elizabeth's 
reign,  although  most  of  the  greater  battles  were  fought  there. 
In  Hugh  O'Xeill,  Earl  of  T>Tone,  and  "Red"  Hugh  O'Don- 
nell,  prince  of  Tyrconnell,  Ireland  had  two  really  great  soldiers 
on  her  side.  The  braven*,  generalship,  prudence,  and  strat- 
egy of  O'Xeill  were  worthy  of  all  praise,  and  Red  Hugh  fell 
little  short  of  his  great  compatriot  In  battle  after  battle  for 
twent)'  years  they  defeated  the  English  with  slaughter.  Ire- 
land, if  more  and  more  devastated  by  campaigns  and  forays, 
became  the  grave  of  tens  of  thousands  of  English  soldiers  and 
scores  of  high  reputations.  Writing  from  Cork,  the  Earl  of 
Essex,  after  a  disastrous  march  through  Leinster  and  Mun- 
ster,  says: 

"I  am  confined  in  Cork  ....  but  still  I  have  been  unsuc- 
cessful; my  undertakings  have  been  attended  with  misfor- 
tune ....  The  Irish  are  stronger  and  handle  their  arms 
with  more  skill  than  our  people:  they  differ  from  us  also  in 
point  of  discipline.  They  likewise  avoid  pitched  battles  where 
order  must  be  obsen  ed,  and  prefer  skirmishes  and  petty  war- 
fare ....  and  are  obstinately  opposed  to  the  English  govern- 
ment" 

They  did  not  like  attacking  or  defending  fortified  places,  he 
also  believed   It  was  only  his  experience.   The  campaigns  of 


THS  FIGHTING  RACR 


iir 


Shane  O'Neill,  a  bold  but  ill-balanced  warrior,  were  full  of 
such  attacks,  but  one  potent  cause  for  Irish  reluctance  to  make 
sieges  a  strong  point  of  their  strategy  was  that  the  strongest 
fortresses  were  on  the  sea.  An  inexhaustible,  powerful  enemy 
who  held  the  sea  was  not  in  the  end  to  be  denied  on  sea  or 
land,  but  the  Irish  in  stubborn  despair  or  supreme  indifference 
to  fate  fought  on.  Religious  rancor  was  added  to  racial  hate. 
Most  of  the  English  settlers,  or  "garrison,"  as  they  came  to 
be  called,  had  become  Protestants  at  the  royal  order.  Ruin 
perched  upon  Ireland's  hills  and  made  a  wilderness  of  her  fer- 
tile valleys.  The  Irish  chieftains  with  their  faithful  follow- 
ers moved  from  place  to  place  in  woods  and  hollows  of  the 
hills.  English  colonists  were  settled  on  confiscated  lands, 
and  were  harried  by  those  who  had  been  driven  from  their 
homes.  It  was  war  among  graves.  At  last  O'Neill  made 
composition  with  the  government  when  all  was  lost  in  the 
field,  but  the  passionate  Irish  resolve  never  to  submit  still 
stalked  like  a  ghost,  as  if  it  could  not  perish. 

When  Elizabeth  died  it  was  thought  that  better  things  were 
coming  to  Ireland  with  James  I.,  the  son  of  Mary,  Queen  of 
Scots.  Nothing  of  the  kind.  That  curiously  minded  creature 
at  once  made  an  ingenuous  proclamation : 

"Whereas  his  Majesty  was  informed  that  his  subjects  of 
Ireland  had  been  deceived  by  a  false  report  that  his  Majesty 
zvas  disposed  to  allow  them  liberty  of  conscience  and  the  free 
choice  of  religion,  now,  etc."  Fresh  "transplanting"  of  Eng- 
lish and  Scotch  settlers  on  the  lands  of  the  Irish  was  the  gist 
of  his  answer  to  the  "false  reports."  So  again  the  war  of  sur- 
prise, ambush,  raid,  and  foray  went  on  in  a  hundred  places  at 
once,  but  the  result  was  that  the  English  power  was  even  more 
firmly  seated  than  before. 

In  the  time  of  Charles  I.  there  were  terrible  slaughters 
both  of  Protestants  and  Catholics.  Patriotism  and  loyalty  as 
moving  causes  had  disappeared,  but  religion  fiercely  took  their 
place.  With  Cromwell,  the  religious  persecution  took  on  an 
apocalyptic  note  of  massacre,  but  the  Irish  were  still  showing 
that  they  were  there  with  arms  in  their  hands.  The  names  of 
Owen  Roe  O'Neill  and  his  splendid  victory,  in  1646,  at  Ben- 
burb  over  the  English  and  Scotch,  where  he  slew  more  than 


118 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


S,000  men,  and  of  another  Hugh  O'Xeill,  who  made  such  a 
brilliant  defense  at  Clonmel  against  Cromwell,  shine  brightly 
out  of  the  darkness.  But  Ireland,  parcelled  out  among  the 
victors,  was  always  the  w^eaker  after  every  campaign.  Waves 
of  war  swept  over  her.  She  became  mixed  up  in  the  rivalries 
of  the  English  royal  families,  religion  playing  the  most  im- 
portant part  in  the  diflFerences.  It  had  armed  Henry  and  Eliz- 
abeth, James  and  Charles  against  her.  It  gave  edge  to  Crom- 
well's sv.ord,  and  it  led  her  into  a  great  effort  on  behalf  of 
James  II.  When  William  of  Orange  crossed  the  Boyne,  all 
that  followed  for  a  century  was  s}Tnbolized.  Athlone,  Augh- 
rim,  Limerick,  all  places  of  great  and  fierce  contests,  were  de- 
cided against  her.  French  support  of  a  kind  had  James,  but 
not  enough.  Braver\'  and  enthusiasm  may  win  battles,  but 
they  do  not  carry  through  great  campaigns.  Once  again  God 
marched  with  the  heaviest,  best-fed,  best-armed  battalions. 
The  great  Tyrone  dying  in  exile  at  Rome,  Red  Hugh  O'Don- 
nell  perishing  in  Spain  in  the  early  days  of  the  seventeenth 
centur}%  were  to  prefigure  the  fighting  and  dying  of  half  a 
million  Irish  warriors  on  continental  soil  for  a  hundred  years 
after  the  fall  of  Limerick  as  the  seventeenth  century  neared 
its  close. 

During  that  period  the  scattered  bands  of  the  Rapparees, 
half  patriots,  half  robbers,  hiding  in  mountain  fastnesses,  dis- 
persing, reassembling,  descending  on  the  English  estates  for 
rapine  or  the  killing  of  "objectionables,"  represented  the  only 
armed  resistance  of  the  Irish.  It  was  generally  futile  although 
picturesque. 

After  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  War  in  America,  Ire- 
land received  a  new  stimulation.  The  success  of  the  patriots  of 
the  Irish  parliament  under  Grattan,  backed  as  they  were  by 
100,000  volunteers  and  130  pieces  of  cannon,  in  freeing  Irish 
industry  and  commerce  from  their  trammels,  evoked  the  ut- 
most malignity  in  England.  Ireland  almost  at  once  sprang  to 
prosperity,  but  it  was  destined  to  be  short  lived.  A  great  con- 
spiracy, which  did  not  at  first  show  above  the  surface,  was  set 
on  foot  to  destroy  the  Irish  parliament.  This  is  not  the  place  to 
follow  the  sinister  machinations  of  the  English,  save  to  note 
that  they  forced  both  the  Presb}i:erians  and  the  Catholics  of 


the;  fighting  race 


llf 


the  north  into  preparations  for  revolt.  The  Society  of  United 
Irishmen  was  formed,  and  drew  many  of  the  brightest  and 
most  cuhivated  men  in  Ireland  into  its  councils.  It  numbered 
over  70,000  adherents  in  Ulster  alone.  The  government  was 
alarmed,  and  began  a  systematic  persecution  of  the  peasantry 
ail  over  Ireland.  English  regiments  were  put  at  "free  quarters," 
that  is,  they  forced  themselves  under  order  into  the  houses  and 
cabins  of  the  people  with  demands  for  bed  and  board.  The 
hapless  people  were  driven  to  fury.  Brutal  murders  and  bar- 
barous tortures  of  men  and  women  by  the  soldiers,  savage  re- 
venges by  the  peasantry,  and  every  form  of  violent  crime  all  at 
once  prevailed  in  the  lately  peaceful  valleys.  Prosecutions  of 
United  Irishmen  and  executions  were  many.  It  was  all  done 
deliberately  to  provoke  revolt.  In  1798  the  revolt  came.  In 
the  greater  part  of  Ulster  and  Munster  the  uprising  failed,  but 
a  great  insurrection  of  the  peasantry  of  Wexford  shocked  the 
country.  Poorly  armed,  utterly  undisciplined,  without  muni- 
tions of  war,  but  40,000  strong,  they  literally  flung  themselves 
pike  in  hand  on  the  English  regiments,  sweeping  everything 
before  them  for  a  time.  Father  John  Murphy,  a  priest  and 
patriot,  was  one  of  their  leaders,  but  Beauchamp  Bagenal 
Harvey  was  soon  their  commander-in-chief.  At  one  time  the 
"rebels"  dominated  the  entire  county  save  for  a  fort  in  the 
harbor  and  a  small  town  or  two,  but  it  was  natural  that  the 
commissariat  should  soon  be  in  difficulties  and  their  ammuni- 
tion give  out.  The  British  general,  Lake,  with  an  army  of 
20,000  men  and  a  moving  column  of  13,000,  attacked  the 
rebels  on  Vinegar  Hill,  and  although  the  fight  was  heroic  and 
bloody  while  it  lasted,  it  was  soon  over  and  the  British  army 
was  victorious.  The  rest  was  retreat,  dispersal,  and  wide- 
spread cruelties  and  burnings  and  a  long  succession  of  mur- 
ders. The  "Boys  of  Wexford"  under  great  difficulties  had 
given  a  great  account  of  themselves.  Dark  as  was  that  page 
of  history,  it  has  been  a  glowing  lamp  to  Irish  disaffection 
ever  since.  It  is  the  soul  of  the  effort  that  counts,  and  the 
disasters  do  not  discredit  *98  in  Irish  eyes. 

Voltaire,  in  his  Century  of  Louis  XIV.,  made  his  reflec- 
tion on  the  Irish  soldier  out  of  his  limited  knowledge  of  the 
Williamite  war  in  Ireland.    He  says,  "The  Irish,  whom  we 


120 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


have  seen  such  good  soldiers  in  France  and  Spain,  have  al- 
ways fought  poorly  at  home"!  They  had  not  fought  poorly 
at  home.  It  took  four  hundred  years  of  English  effort  to 
complete,  merely  on  its  face,  the  conquest  of  Ireland,  and 
all  of  that  long  sweep  of  the  sword  of  Time  was  a  time  of 
battle.  The  Irish  were  fought  with  every  appliance  of  war, 
backed  by  the  riches  of  a  prospering,  strongly  organized  coun- 
try, and  impelled  persistently  by  the  greed  of  land  and  love  of 
mastery;  but  there  was  not  a  mountain  pass  in  Ireland,  not  a 
square  mile  of  plain,  not  a  river-ford,  scarce  a  hill  that  had  not 
been  piled  high  with  English  dead  in  that  four  hundred  y^ars 
at  the  hands  of  the  Irish  wielders  of  sword  and  spear  and  pike. 

The  Irish  had  not  made  their  environment  or  their  natures, 
and  no  power  on  earth  could  change  them.  Over  greater  Eng- 
land had  swept  the  Romans,  the  Jutes,  the  Saxons,  the  Angles, 
the  Norsemen,  and  the  Normans.  All  found  lodgment  and  all 
went  to  the  making  of  Eneland.  Well,  "one  might  say,  it  had 
been  for  Ireland  if  she  had  developed  that  assimilating  power 
which  made  her  successive  conquerors  In  pro'^ess  of  time  the 
feeders  of  her  greatness,  but  the  Trhh  would  not  and  could 
not.  Instead,  they  developed  the  pride  of  race  that  no  mo- 
mentary defeat  could  down.  They  became  inured  to  battle 
and  dreamt  of  battle  when  the  oeace  of  an  hour  was  given 
them.  When  the  four  kings  of  Ireland  were  feasted  In  Dublin 
by  King  Richard  II.  of  England,  an  English  chronicler  re- 
marked, "Never  were  men  of  ruder  manners":  but  neither 
the  silken  array  and  golden  glitter  of  Richard*s  peripatetic 
court  nor  the  brave  display  of  his  thousand  knights  and 
thirty  thousand  archers  filled  them  with  longing  for  the 
one  or  fear  of  the  other.  They  went  back  to  their  Irish 
hills  and  plains  and  fastnesses  as  obstinately  Irish  as  ever. 

They  fought  well  at  home.  If  unfortunatelv.  the  wonder 
being  that  they  continued  to  fight.  The  heavens  and  the  earth 
seemed  combined  against  them. 

II. — The  Fighting  Race  Abroad. 

We  next  see  Irish  soldiers  fighting  abroad.  The  blood  they 
had  shed  so  freely  for  the  Stuarts  at  the  Boyne,  at  Athlone, 


THE  FIGHTING  RACE 


121 


at  Aughrim,  at  Limerick  was  in  vain.  The  king  of  France, 
if  he  sent  armies  to  Ireland,  demanded  Irish  troops  in  re- 
turn. The  transports  that  brought  the  French  regiments 
over  in  May,  1690,  took  back  over  five  thousand  officers  and 
men  from  Ireland,  who  formed  the  first  Irish  Brigade  in  the 
service  of  France.  This,  remember,  was  before  the  battle  of 
the  Boyne.  The  men  were  formed  on  their  arrival  in  France 
into  three  regiments,  those  of  Mountcashel,  O'Brien,  and 
Dillon,  named  after  their  commanders,  and  were  sent  to 
Savoy.  The  French  aid  to  James  in  Ireland  helped  best  in 
giving  confidence  to  the  raw  Irish  levies,  but  it  was  more  than 
offset  by  the  German  troops  brought  over  by  William.  The 
weakness,  indecision,  or  worse,  of  James  before  Derry,  his 
chicken-hearted  failure  to  overwhelm  Schomberg  when  he 
lay  at  his  mercy  before  the  arrival  of  William,  ruined  his 
chances.  Remember  that  the  Irish  army,  if  defeated  at  the 
Boyne,  was  not  broken,  and  was  strong  enough,  when  pursued 
by  William,  to  repulse  him  with  500  killed  and  1,000  wounded 
and  to  compel  him  to  raise  the  siege  of  Limerick.  The  dash 
and  skill  of  Patrick  Sarsfield,  Earl  of  Lucan,  backed  by  Irish 
desperation,  won  the  day.  The  French  troops  sailed  home 
after  William's  retreat.  In  the  next  year's  campaign  occurred 
the  crowning  disasters  of  the  war,  but  in  any  other  country 
or  with  any  other  people  than  the  English  the  terms  of  capitula- 
tion at  Limerick,  which  were  formulated  by  Ginkel  and 
showed  a  soldier's  respect  for  a  brave  and  still  powerful  foe, 
would  have  ushered  in  an  era  of  peace. 

The  Irish  soldiers'  distrust  of  the  conquerors  was  shown  in 
the  fact  that,  since  the  stipulations  allowed  the  free  departure 
of  the  garrison  with  honors  of  war,  19,059  officers  and  men 
took  service  with  France,  and  sailed  in  October,  1691,  on  the 
French  fleet,  which  by  the  irony  of  fate  had  arrived  in  the 
Shannon  too  late,  on  the  very  day  after  the  signing  of  the 
treaty  of  Limerick.  Never  in  the  whole  course  of  the  his- 
tory of  nations  has  more  hideous  treachery  been  shown  than 
in  the  immediate  breaking  of  that  treaty;  and  dearly  has  Eng- 
land paid  for  it  ever  since,  although,  for  the  hundred  years 
that  followed,  Ireland  sank  to  the  very  depths  under  the  penal 
laws,  with  her  trade  ruined,  her  lands  stolen,  her  religion  per- 


122 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


secuted,  and  all  education  and  enlightenment  forbidden  by 
abominable,  drastic  laws. 

If,  as  has  been  computed,  450,000  Irish  fought  and  died  in 
the  service  of  France  between  1690  and  1745,  a  further  30,000 
are  to  be  added  down  to  1792.  A  French  writer  estimates  the 
whole  Irish  contingent  at  750,000,  but,  for  a  roster  of  seekers 
of  glory  from  an  impoverished  people,  the  more  reasonable 
half-million  should  surely  suffice. 

Long  would  be  the  story  to  follow  the  fighting  fortunes  of 
the  Irish  Brigades.  Officered  by  Irish  gentlemen  and  drilled 
to  perfection,  they  soon  came  to  hold  in  the  French  service 
the  esteem  that  later  was  given  to  Irish  regiments  in  the 
service  of  England.  King  Louis  \velcomed  them  heartily  and 
paid  them  a  higher  wage  than  his  native  soldiers.  No  duty 
was  too  arduous  or  too  dangerous  for  the  Irish  Brigades. 
Seldom  were  they  left  to  rust  in  idleness.  Europe  was  a  cal- 
dron of  wars  of  high  ambitions. 

The  Irish  regiments  fought  through  the  war  in  Flanders. 
At  Landen,  July  29,  1693,  the  French  under  the  duke  of  Lux- 
embourg defeated  the  English  under  William  III.  with  a 
slaughter  of  10,473  men,  losing  8,000  men  themselves.  In  the 
retreat,  Ginkel,  William's  general  in  the  Irish  campaign,  was 
almost  drowned  in  the  river  Greete.  The  Irish  Royal  Regi- 
ment of  Footguards,  that  of  Dorrington,  was  the  first  corps  to 
break  through  the  English  intrenchments,  its  gallant  leader. 
Colonel  Barrett,  falling  as  he  headed  the  charge.  Here  also 
was  stricken  Lieutenant-Colonel  Nugent  of  Sheldon's  Irish 
Regiment.  Here  also  fell — saddest  loss  of  all — Patrick  Sars- 
field.  Earl  of  Lucan,  brave,  resourceful,  a  true  unfaltering 
soldier  and  lover  of  his  country.  The  legend  of  his  life  blood 
flowing  before  his  eyes  and  his  utterance,  "Would  it  had  been 
shed  for  Ireland",  may  and  should  be  true,  although  he  lived 
three  days  after  the  battle.  Would,  indeed,  it  had  been  shed 
for  Ireland — after  such  a  day! 

It  was  in  1703  that  the  celebrated  defence  of  Cremona  lifted 
Irish  renowm  to  great  heights  throughout  Europe.  There  were 
but  600  Irish  troopers  all  told  in  that  long  day's  work,  and  from 
the  break  of  day  till  nightfall  they  held  at  bay  Prince  Eugene's 
army  of  10,000  men.    The  two  battalions  of  Bourke  and 


the;  fighting  race 


123 


Dillon  were  surprised  at  early  morn  to  learn  that  the  Austrians 
— and  there  were  Irish  officers  among  them — were  in  the  town. 
Major  O'Mahony  and  his  men  ran  from  their  beds  to  the 
gates,  and  neither  the  foes  without  nor  the  foes  within  could 
make  them  budge.  Terribly  they  suffered  under  concentrated 
attacks,  but  a  withering  fire  from  the  Irish  met  every  assault. 
It  was  nightfall  before  relief  came,  and  then  the  sons  of  Ire- 
land who  had  held  Cremona  for  the  French  were  acclaimed 
by  all,  but  of  their  600  they  had  lost  nearly  350.  Small  won- 
der that  the  honor  list  that  day  was  long.  In  Bourke's  bat- 
talion the  specially  distinguished  were  Captains  Wauchop, 
Plunkett,  Donnellan,  MacAuliffe,  Carrin,  Power,  Nugent,  and 
Ivers;  in  Dillon's,  Major  O'Mahony,  Captains  Dillon,  Lynch, 
MacDonough,  and  Magee,  and  Lieutenants  Dillon  and  Gib- 
bon, John  Bourke  and  Thomas  Dillon.  Major  O'Mahony 
was  sent  to  Paris  to  carry  the  news  of  the  victory  to  the  king, 
who  presented  him  with  a  purse  of  1,000  louis  d'or,  a  pen- 
sion of  1,000  livres,  and  the  brevet  of  colonel. 

So  the  history  proceeds,  the  Irish  regiments  lost  in  the 
array  of  the  French  forces,  but  showing  here  and  there  a 
glint  of  charging  bayonets,  captured  trenches,  and  gushes  of 
Irish  blood.  In  1703  the  brigade  regiments  fought  in  Italy 
and  Germany  under  the  Due  de  Vendome.  We  hear  of  the 
regiments  of  Berwick,  Bourke,  Dillon,  Galmoy,  and  Fitzgerald 
vigorously  engaged.  In  Germany  the  story  is  of  Sheldon's 
Horse  and  two  battalions  of  the  regiments  of  Dorrington  and 
Clare.  At  the  first  battle  of  Blenheim,  September  20,  1703, 
the  regiment  of  Clare  lost  one  of  its  colors,  rallied,  charged 
with  the  bayonet  and  recovered  it,  taking  two  colors  from  the 
enemy.  This  was  a  French  victory.  Not  so  the  great  battle 
of  Blenheim,  August,  1704,  when  Marlborough  and  Prince 
Eugene  severely  defeated  the  French  and  Bavarians.  Three 
Irish  battalions  shared  in  the  disaster.  In  1705  at  Cassano 
in  Italy  an  Irish  regiment,  finding  itself  badly  galled  by  ar- 
tillery fire  from  the  opposite  bank  of  the  Adda,  declared  they 
could  stand  it  no  lonofer,  and  thereupon  Jumped  in,  swam  the 
river,  and  captured  the  battery.  In  1705  Colonel  O'Mahony 
of  Cremona  fame  distinguished  himself  in  Spain.  In  the 
next  year  at  the  battle  of  Ramillies,  in  which  Marlborough 


124 


THE^  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


with  the  Dutch  defeated  the  French  under  Villeroi,  Lord 
Clare's  regiment  captured  the  colors  of  the  English  Churchill 
regiment  and  of  the  Scottish  regiment  in  the  Dutch  service.  In 
the  same  year  and  the  next,  the  Irish  Brigade  fought  many 
battles  in  Spain.  One  cannot  pursue  the  details  of  the  en- 
gagements. Regiments  ever  decimated  were  ever  recruited  by 
the  "Wild  Geese"  from  Ireland — the  adventurous  Catholic 
youth  of  the  country  who  sought  congenial  outlet  for  their 
love  of  adventure  and  glory.  Many  Irish  also  joined  the 
French  army  after  deserting  from  the  English  forces  in 
Flanders. 

It  was,  however,  at  Fontenoy,  May  11,  1745,  that  the  Irish 
Brigade  rendered  their  most  signal  service  to  France.  The 
English  under  the  Duke  of  Cumberland,  son  of  George  II., 
with  55,000  men  including  a  large  German  and  Dutch  auxil- 
iary, met  the  French  under  Marshal  Saxe,  and  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  French  king  Louis  XV.,  near  Tournai  in  Bel- 
gium. Saxe  had  40,000  men  in  action  and  24,000  around  Tour- 
nai, which  town  was  the  objective  of  the  English  advance. 
Among  the  troops  on  the  field  were  the  six  Irish  regiments 
of  Clare,  Dillon,  Bulkeley,  Roth,  Berwick,  and  Lally,  all  un- 
der Charles  O'Brien,  Viscount  Clare,  afterwards  Marshal 
Thomond  of  France.  After  fierce  cannonading  on  both  sides 
and  a  check  to  the  allies  on  their  right  and  left,  a  great  column 
of  English  veterans  advanced  on  the  French  centre,  breaking 
through  with  sheer  force.  They  had  thus  reached  high  ground 
when  some  cannonading  halted  them.  It  was  at  this  moment 
of  gravest  peril  to  the  French  that  the  Irish  regiments  with 
unshotted  guns  charged  headlong  up  the  slope  on  their  ancient 
enemies,  crying,  "Remember  Limerick  and  British  Faith !" 
The  great  English  column,  already  roughly  handled  by  the 
cannon,  broke  and  fled  in  wild  disorder  before  that  irre- 
sistible onslaught,  and  France  had  won  a  priceless  victory,  but 
the  six  Irish  regiments  lost  one-third  of  their  gallant  men  by 
a  single  volley  as  they  followed  their  steel  into  the  English 
lines. 

When  Charles  Edward,  the  Stuart  Pretender,  landed  in 
Scotland  in  1745,  he  was  followed  by  a  small  French  force, 
including  500  Irishmen  from  the  Brigade.     Colonel  John 


TH^  FIGHTING  RACE 


O'Sullivan  was  much  relied  on  by  the  prince  in  his  extra- 
ordinary campaign-  Sir  Thomas  Sheridan  also  distinguished 
himself.  There  were  475  Irish  at  the  battle  of  Culloden,  that 
foredoomed  defeat  of  the  Stuart  cause,  and  two  days  later 
a  score  of  Irish  officers  were  among  those  who  surrendered 
at  Inverness. 

In  Spain  at  the  beginning  of  the  18th  century  there  were 
hundreds  of  Irish  officers  in  the  military  service,  and  eight 
Irish  regiments.  Among  the  officers  were  thirteen  Kellys,  thir- 
teen Burkes,  and  four  Sheas.  It  seemed  that  Ireland  had  sol- 
diers for  the  world.  Don  Patricio,  Don  Miguel,  Don  Carlos, 
Don  Tadeo  took  the  place  of  Patrick,  Michael,  Charles,  and 
Thadeus.  O'Hart  gives  a  list  of  sixty  descendants  of  the  "Wild 
Geese"  in  places  of  honor  in  Spain.  General  Prim  was  a  descen- 
dant of  the  Princes  of  Inisnage  in  Kilkenny.  An  O'Donnell 
was  Duke  of  Tetuan  and  field  marshal  of  Spain.  Ambrose 
O'Higgins,  born  in  county  Meath,  Ireland,  was  the  foremost 
Spanish  soldier  in  Chile  and  Peru ;  Admiral  Patricio  Lynch  was 
one  of  its  most  distinguished  sailors ;  and  James  McKenna  its 
greatest  military  engineer.  The  son  of  O'Higgins  was  fore- 
most among  those  who  fought  for  Chilean  independence  and 
gained  it,  and  one  of  his  ablest  lieutenants  was  Colonel  Charles 
Patrick  O'Madden  of  Maryland. 

In  Austria  the  Irish  soldiers  were  particularly  welcome. 
They  count  forty-one  field-marshals,  major-generals,  gen- 
erals of  cavalry,  and  masters  of  ordnance  of  Irish  birth  in  the 
Austrian  service.  O'Callaghan  relates  that  on  March  17,  1766, 
His  Excellency  Count  Mahony  (son  of  the  O'Mahony  of 
Cremona),  ambassador  from  Spain  to  the  court  of  Vienna, 
gave  a  grand  entertainment  in  honor  of  St.  Patrick,  to  which 
he  invited  all  persons  of  condition  who  were  of  Irish  de- 
scent. Among  many  others,  there  were  present  Count  Lacy, 
President  of  the  Council  at  War,  the  generals  O'Donnell,  Mc- 
Guire,  O'Kelly,  Browne,  Plunkett,  and  MacElligot,  four 
chiefs  of  the  Grand  Cross,  two  governors,  several  knights 
military,  six  staff  officers,  and  four  privy  councillors,  with 
the  principal  officers  of  State.  All  wore  Patrick's  crosses  in 
honor  of  the  Irish  nation,  as  did  the  whole  court  that  day. 
Emperor  Francis  I.  said :  "The  more  Irish  officers  in  the  Aus- 


126 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


trian  service  the  better;  bravery  will  not  be  wanting;  our 
troops  will  always  be  well  disciplined."  The  Austrian 
O'Reillys  and  Taaffes  were  famous.  It  was  the  dragoon  reg- 
iment of  Count  O'Reilly  that  by  a  splendid  charge  saved  the 
remnant  of  the  Austrian  army  at  Austerlitz. 

In  the  American  war  of  the  Revolution,  General  Charles 
Geoghegan  of  the  Irish  Brigade  made  the  campaigns  of 
Rochambeau  and  Lafayette.  He  received  the  order  of  the 
Cincinnati  from  Washington  and  was  ever  proud  of  it.  Lieu- 
tenant General  O'Moran  also  served  in  America.  He  was 
afterwards  executed  in  the  French  Revolution,  for  the  "Bri- 
gade" remained  royalist  to  the  end.  General  Arthur  Dillon, 
who  served  in  the  Brigade,  was  also  guillotined  in  1794,  cry- 
ing, "Vive  le  roi!"  At  the  foot  of  the  scaffold  a  woman,  prob- 
ably Mme.  Hebert,  also  condemned,  stood  beside  him.  The 
executioner  told  her  to  mount  the  steps.  "Oh,  Monsieur  Dil- 
lon," she  said,  "pray  go  first."  "Anything  to  oblige  a  lady," 
he  answered  gaily,  and  so  faced  his  God. 

Lord  Macaulay,  commenting  upon  these  things  and  de- 
ploring the  policies  that  brought  them  about,  says  with  great 
significance : 

"There  were  Irish  Catholics  of  great  ability,  but  they  were 
to  be  found  everywhere  except  in  Ireland — at  Versailles,  at 
St.  Ildefonso,  in  the  armies  of  Frederic,  in  the  armies  of  Maria 
Theresa.  One  exile  (Lord  Clare)  became  a  marshal  of 
France,  another  (General  Wall)  became  Prime  Minister  of 
Spain  ....  Scattered  all  over  Europe  were  to  be  found 
brave  Irish  generals,  dexterous  Irish  diplomatists,  Irish  counts, 
Irish  barons,  Irish  knights  of  St.  Louis  and  St.  Leopold,  of  the 
White  Eagle,  and  of  the  Golden  Fleece,  who  if  they  remained 
in  the  house  of  bondage,  could  not  have  been  ensigns  of  march- 
ing regiments  or  freemen  of  petty  corporations." 

The  old  Irish  brigades  ended  with  the  French  monarchy. 
Battalions  of  the  regiments  of  Dillon  and  Walsh  were  with 
the  French  fleet  in  the  West  Indies  at  Grenada  and  St.  Eus- 
tache,  also  at  Savannah,  and  under  Rochambeau  at  Yorktown, 
but,  except  as  to  the  officers,  the  surviving  regiments  of  Ber- 
wick, Dillon,  and  Walsh  were  largely  French.   With  the  bet- 


the;  fighting  race 


127 


ter  times  under  Grattan's  Parliament  in  Ireland,  the  soldier 
emigration  to  France  had  all  but  ceased.  The  Irish  Volun- 
teers of  1782  numbered  100,000  men,  of  whom  an  appre- 
ciable proportion  were  Catholics.  Many  Irish  went  into  the 
English  army  and  navy,  but  there  was  another  stream  of  fight- 
ing emigrants,  that  which  flocked  to  the  standard  of  revolt 
against  England  in  America,  of  which  much  was  to  be  heard 
thereafter. 

In  the  American  colonies  before  the  Revolution  there  wero 
thousands  of  descendants  of  the  Catholic  Irish  who  had  set- 
tled in  Alaryland  and  Pennsylvania  during  the  seventeenth 
century,  as  well  as  hardy  Irish  Presbyterians  from  Ulster, 
who  came  in  great  multitudes  during  the  first  half  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  They  had  suffered  persecution  in  Ireland 
for  conscience  sake  from  their  fellow-Protestants.  In  Maine, 
New  Hampshire,  Massachusetts,  Pennsylvania,  and  the  Caro- 
linas  they  constituted  entire  communities.  The  emigration  of 
the  Catholic  or  purely  Celtic  Irish  to  America  in  the  seven- 
teenth and  eighteenth  centuries  was  often  compulsory.  At 
any  rate,  after  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  it  was 
large  and  became  continuous — a  true  drift.  Catholics  and 
Presbyterians  alike  brought  hostility  to  the  English  govern- 
ment with  them,  and  their  voices  fed  the  storm  of  discontent. 
The  Irish  schoolmasters,  of  whom  there  were  hundreds,  were 
especially  efficient  in  this.  They  came  in  every  ship  to  the 
colonies.  They  had  no  love  for  England,  for  they  had  ex- 
perienced in  Ireland  the  tyranny  of  English  law,  and  they 
would  be  more  than  human  if  they  did  not  imbue  the  minds  of 
the  American  children  under  their  care  with  their  own  hatred 
of  oppression  and  wrong  and  English  domination.  The  log 
schoolhouse  of  the  Irish  teacher  became  the  nursery  of  revo- 
lution. They  were  a  very  important  factor,  therefore,  in  the 
making  of  the  Revolution,  and  many  of  them  took  an  active 
part  as  soldiers  in  the  field. 

The  Irish,  both  Catholics  and  Protestants,  poured  into  the 
patriot  ranks  once  the  standard  of  revolt  was  raised  in  1775. 
The  Pennsylvania  line,  which  General  Lee  called  "the  line  of 
Ireland,"  was  almost  entirely  Irish,  and  the  rosters  of  several 
of  the  Maryland  and  Virginia  regiments  contain  a  remarkably 


128 


THE  GLORIES  or  IRELAND 


large  proportion  of  Irish  names,  in  some  cases  running  as  high 
as  60  per  cent.  It  is  computed  that  the  Irish  furnished  not  less 
than  a  third  of  the  whole  American  forces.  A  common  cause 
blotted  out  all  old  religious  prejudices  between  Irishmen  in  the 
American  service.  It  was  John  Sullivan,  of  New  Hampshire, 
son  of  a  Limerick  schoolmaster,  who  began  the  revolt  by  seiz- 
ing the  fort  of  William  and  Mary  and  its  storehouses  filled  with 
that  powder  which  charged  the  guns  at  Bunker  Hill  in  the  fol- 
lowing year.  It  was  Captain  Jeremiah  O'Brien,  with  his  broth- 
ers, who  made  the  first  sea  attack  on  the  British  off  Machias, 
Maine,  in  May,  1775,  an  engagement  which  Fenimore  Cooper 
calls  "the  Lexington  of  the  Seas."  There  were  fifteen  Celtic 
Irish  names  among  the  Minute  Men  at  the  Battle  of  Lexington. 
Colonel  Barrett,  who'commanded  at  Concord,  was  Irish.  There 
were  258  Celtic  Irish  names  on  the  rosters  of  the  American 
forces  at  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill.  John  Sullivan  had  been 
made  a  major-general,  thereafter  to  be  a  notable  figure  in 
the  war  at  Princeton,  Trenton,  Newport,  and  in  his  Indian 
campaign.  The  Connecticut  line  was  thick  with  Irish  names. 
Around  Washington  himself  was  a  circle  of  brilliant  Irish- 
men :  Adjutant-General  Edward  Hand  leading  his  rifles, 
Stephen  Moylan  his  dragoons,  General  Henry  Knox  and 
Colonel  Proctor  at  the  head  of  his  artillery,  John  Dunlop  his 
body-guard,  Andrew  Lewis  his  brigadier-general,  Ephraim 
Blaine  his  quartermaster,  all  of  Irish  birth  or  ancestry.  Com- 
modore John  Barry,  born  in  Wexford  in  1739  and  bred  to  the 
sea,  was  a  ship  captain  in  his  early  twenties,  trading  from 
Philadelphia.  When  the  Continental  Congress  met,  he  at  once 
volunteered,  and  was  given  command  of  the  Lexington,  the 
first  American  ship  to  capture  a  British  war  vessel.  Later, 
after  gallant  fighting  on  sea  and  land,  he  was  given  command 
of  the  U.  S.  frigate  Alliance,  in  which  he  crossed  the  Atlantic 
to  France,  and  fought  and  captured  in  a  rattling  battle  two 
British  warships,  the  Atlanta  and  the  Trepasay.  He  was  the 
Father  of  the  American  navy,  holding  captain's  certificate  No. 
1,  signed  by  Washington  himself — the  highest  rank  then  issued. 

General  Richard  Montgomery,  the  brave  and  able  soldier 
who  fell  at  Quebec  as  he  charged  the  heights,  was  an  Irish- 
man.   General  George  Clinton,  son  of  an  Irishman,  was  a 


THE  I^IGHTING  RACE 


n9 


brigadier-general,  governor  of  New  York  and  twice  Vice- 
President  of  the  United  States.  Fifty-seven  officers  of  New 
York  regiments  in  the  Revolution  were  Irish,  and  a  large 
number  of  the  officers  in  the  Southern  regiments  of  the  line, 
as  well  as  of  the  militia,  were  native  Irish  or  of  Irish  descent. 
The  rosters  of  the  enlisted  Irishmen  of  the  New  York  regi- 
ments run  into  the  thousands.  Hundreds  of  Irish  soldiers 
suffered  in  the  prison  ships  of  New  York,  the  horrors  of 
which  served  so  conspicuously  to  stimulate  American  deter- 
mination to  carry  the  war  to  the  only  rightful  conclusion. 
Washington  always  recognized  America's  debt  to  the  Irish. 
"St.  Patrick''  he  made  the  watchword  in  the  patriot  lines  the 
night  before  the  English  evacuated  Boston  forever  on  the 
memorable  17th  of  March,  1776.  After  the  war  he  was  made, 
with  his  own  consent,  an  honorary  member  of  the  Friendly 
Sons  of  St.  Patrick.  Major-General  Richard  Butler  and  his 
four  brothers,  all  officers,  and  Brigadier-Generals  John  Arm- 
strong, William  Irvine,  William  Thompson,  James  Smith,  and 
Griffith  Rutherford  all  fought  with  distinction.  All  of  these 
officers  were  Irish-born.  It  was  in  truth  an  Irish  war,  so  far 
as  Irish  sentiment  and  whole-hearted  service  could  make  it. 
The  record  of  Irish  soldiers'  names  alone  would  fill  volumes. 

The  thirst  of  the  Irish  race  for  the  glory  of  war  is  shown  in 
the  large  enlistments  in  the  last  quarter  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, and  since,  in  the  English  army  and  navy.  Grattan,  in 
pleading  for  Ireland,  claimed  that  a  large  percentage  of  the 
British  forces  were  Irish.  Wolfe  Tone  avers  that  there  were 
210  Irishmen  out  of  220  in  the  crew  of  a  British  frigate  that 
overhauled  his  ship  on  its  way  to  America.  Bonaparte  had  in 
his  armies  an  Irish  Legion  that  did  good  ser\nce  in  Holland, 
Spain,  Portugal,  and  Germany.  Marshal  Clarke,  Duke  of 
Feltre,  French  Minister  of  War  in  1809,  was  Irish.  Up  and 
down  the  Spanish  Peninsula,  Irish  blood  was  shed  in  abun- 
dance in  the  armies  of  Wellington.  Never  was  more  brilliant 
fighting  done  than  that  which  stands  to  Irish  credit  from  the 
lines  of  Torres  Vedras  to  Badajos  and  Toulouse.  Of  the 
Waterloo  campaign  volumes  have  been  written  in  praise  of 
Irish  valor.  As  Maxwell  says  in  his  Tales  of  Waterloo: — 
"The  victors  of  Marengo  and  Austerlitz  reeled  before  the 


130 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


charge  of  the  Connaught  Rangers."  Wellington  himself  was 
Irish,  as  in  the  later  wars  of  England  Lord  Gough,  Lord 
Wolseley,  Lord  Roberts,  Lord  Kitchener,  and  General  French 
came  from  Ireland.  The  Irish  soldiers  in  the  English  service 
by  a  pitiful  irony  of  fate  helped  materially  to  fasten  the 
chains  of  English  domination  on  the  peoples  of  India  in  a 
long  series  of  wars. 

In  America,  the  War  of  1813  once  more  gave  opportunity 
to  the  Fighting  Race.  The  commanding  figure  of  the  war, 
which  opened  so  inauspiciously  for  the  United  States,  was 
General  Andrew  Jackson,  the  hero  of  the  battle  of  New  Or- 
leans, and  afterwards  twice  elected  President  of  the  United 
States.  "Old  Hickory",  as  he  came  to  be  lovingly  called,  was 
proud  of  his  Irish  father,  and  sympathized  with  the  national 
longings  of  the  Irish  people.  He  was  a  splendid  soldier,  and 
his  defeat  of  the  English  general,  Pakenham,  on  January  8, 
1815,  which  meant  the  control  of  the  mouths  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, as  well  as  safeguarding  the  city  of  New  Orleans,  re- 
flected the  highest  credit  on  his  skill  and  unflagging  energ3^ 
The  English  had  superior  numbers,  between  8,000  and  9,000 
men,  against  a  scant  6,000  under  Jackson,  and  their  force  was 
made  up  of  veterans  of  the  European  wars.  In  command  of 
the  left  of  his  line  Jackson  placed  the  gallant  general  William 
Carroll,  born  in  Philadelphia,  but  of  Irish  blood,  who  was 
afterwards  twice  governor  of  Tennessee.  The  British  gen- 
eral made  the  mistake  of  despising  the  soldier  value  of  his 
enemy,  yet  before  evening  of  that  day  he  saw  his  artillery 
silenced  and  his  lines  broken,  as  he  died  of  a  wound  on  the 
field.  The  battle  was  actually  fought  after  the  signing  of 
the  treaty  of  peace  at  Ghent;  it  annihilated  British  preten- 
sions in  this  part  of  the  world,  anyway. 

After  Commodore  Perry,  the  victor  in  the  battle  of  Lake 
Erie,  and  himself  the  son  of  an  Irish  mother,  the  northern 
naval  glory  of  the  War  of  1812  falls  to  Lieutenant  Thomas 
MacDonough,  of  Irish  descent,  whose  victory  on  Lake  Cham- 
plain  over  the  British  squadron  was  almost  as  important  as 
Perry's.  Admiral  Charles  L.  Stewart  ("Old  Ironsides"),  who 
commanded  the  frigate  Constitution  when  she  captured  the 
Cyane  and  the  Levant,  fighting  them  by  moonlight,  was  a 


THE  LIGHTING  RACE 


131 


great  and  renowned  figure.  His  parents  came  from  Ireland,  and 
Charles  Stewart  Parnell's  mother  was  the  great  sea-fighter's 
daughter.  Lieutenant  Stephen  Cassin  commanded  the  Ticon- 
deroga  and  fought  her  well.  Captain  Johnston  Blakely,  who 
was  born  in  Ireland,  captured  in  the  Wasp  of  18  guns  the  much 
larger  British  Reindeer  of  20  guns  and  175  men  in  a  splendid 
fight,  and  later  sank  the  Avon,  an  18-gun  brig.  After  cap- 
turing a  great  prize,  which  he  sent  to  Savannah,  he  sailed  for 
the  Spanish  main  and  was  never  heard  of  more.  Captain 
Boyle,  in  the  privateer  Comet  of  Baltimore,  fought  the  Hibernia, 
of  18  guns,  and  later  in  the  Chasseur,  known  as  the  phantom 
ship,  so  fast  she  sailed,  took  eighty  prizes  on  the  high  seas. 
General  A.  E.  Maccomb,  who  commanded  victoriously  at 
Plattsburg,  was  of  Irish  descent,  and  Colonel  Robert  Carr,  who 
distinguished  himself  in  the  same  campaign,  was  born  in  Ire- 
land. Major  George  Croghan  of  Kentucky,  the  hero  of  Fort 
Stephenson,  was  the  son  of  an  Irish  father  who  had  been  a 
soldier  in  the  Revolution.  Colonel  Hugh  Brady,  of  the  22nd 
Infantry,  commanded  at  Niagara.  He  remained  in  the  army 
and  fought  in  Mexico.  William  McRee,  of  Irish  descent,  was 
General  Browne's  chief  engineer  in  laying  out  the  military 
works  of  the  American  army  at  Niagara. 

Let  it  not  be  forgotten  that  in  this  memorable  company , 
brave  Mrs.  Doyle  has  a  place.  Her  husband,  Patrick  Doyle, 
an  Irish  artilleryman,  had  been  taken  prisoner  by  the  British 
in  the  affair  at  Queenston  and  had  been  refused  a  parole. 
Accordingly,  when  the  guns  were  trained  on  the  English  lines 
before  Fort  Niagara,  Mary,  emulating  the  example  of  her 
countrywoman,  "Molly"  Pitcher,  at  Monmouth,  determined 
to  take  her  husband's  place,  and,  regardless  of  flying  British 
balls,  tended  a  blacksmith's  bellows  all  day,  providing  red-hot 
shot  for  the  American  gun  battery,  and  sending  a  prayer  with 
every  shot  into  the  British  lines. 

After  the  Queenston  affair,  it  is  well  to  note,  the  English 
doctrine  of  perpetual  allegiance  was  abated.  Twenty-three 
Irish-born  men  were  among  the  captives  of  the  English  in  that 
engagement.  They  were  manacled  to  be  sent  to  Ireland  to  be 
tried  for  treason,  not  as  enemies  taken  in  the  field.  Winfield 
Scott,  then  lieutenant-colonel,  was  also  a  prisoner  with  them. 


(10) 


132 


THE  GLORIES  0?  IRELAND 


He  protested  loudly  against  this  infamous  course.  Upon  his 
release  he  laid  aside  twenty-three  British  prisoners  to  be 
treated  like  the  Irishmen,  eye  for  eye  and  tooth  for  tooth. 
As  a  result,  the  Irish  prisoners  were  exchanged. 

Colonel  John  Allen,  who  fell  at  the  head  of  the  First  Regi- 
ment of  Kentucky  Riflemen  at  the  battle  of  the  river  Raisin 
on  January  21,  1813,  was  one  of  the  Irish  Aliens  of  Ken- 
tucky.   His  father  and  mother  were  natives  of  Ireland. 

The  Mexican  War  (1846-48)  again  showed  Irish  valor  at 
the  front.  It  was  not  a  great  war,  though  brilliantly  fought 
and  rich  in  territorial  accessions.  The  campaigning  comprised 
the  work  of  two  main  expeditions  and  a  subsidiary  movement 
in  California.  One  column,  under  General  Zachary  Taylor, 
penetrated  northern  Mexico  and  fought  the  battles  of  Mata- 
moras,  Palo  Alto,  and  Resaca  de  la  Palma,  in  May,  1846,  with 
a  force  of  2,200  men;  forced  the  evacuation  of  Monterey  in 
September,  his  army  swelled  to  5,000 ;  and  defeated  Santa  Anna 
at  Buena  Vista  in  February,  1847.  General  Winfield  Scott, 
with  a  naval  expediton,  attacked  Vera  Cruz  from  the  sea  in 
March,  1847,  and  took  up  the  march,  13,000  strong,  to  Mexico 
City,  fighting  the  battles  of  Cerro  Gordo,  Contreras,  Churu- 
busco,  Molino  del  Rey,  and  Chapultepec,  and  entered  Mexico 
City  on  September  14.  General  James  Shields,  born  in 
Tyrone,  Ireland,  in  1810,  was  in  command  with  his  brigade 
under  Scott.  A  brilliant  soldier,  he  was  severely  wounded 
at  Cerro  Gordo  and  again  at  Chapultepec.  He  served 
as  United  States  Senator  after  the  war  and  again  took  the 
field  in  the  Civil  War,  his  forces  defeating  Stonewall  Jackson 
at  the  first  battle  of  Winchester  in  1862.  The  glamour  of  chiv- 
alry lights  the  name  of  Phil  Kearney.  Here  was  a  born  sol- 
dier. He  was  a  volunteer  with  the  French  in  Algiers  in 
1839-40.  He  also  commanded  under  Scott  with  brilliant 
bravery,  and  was  brevetted  major  on  the  field  for  "gallant 
and  meritorious  conduct"  at  the  battles  of  Contreras  and 
Churubusco.  In  the  French  war  with  Austria  in  1859-60, 
Kearney  fought  with  the  French,  distinguishing  himself  at  the 
decisive  and  bloody  battle  of  Solferino.  In  the  Civil  War  he 
was  brigadier-general  of  New  Jersey  troops  in  1861  and 
major-general  in  1862,  taking  distinguished  part  in  the  bat- 


THE  FIGHTING  RACR 


133 


ties  of  the  Peninsula  and  second  Bull  Run,  and  was  killed 
while  reconnoitring  at  Chantilly.  General  Stephen  W.  Kear- 
ney, with  the  Army  of  the  West,  by  dint  of  long  marches,  se- 
cured California  among  the  fruits  of  the  war.  General  Ben- 
net  Riley,  born  in  Maryland  of  Irish  ancestry,  commanded  a 
brigade  at  Contreras,  making  a  wonderful  charge,  and  also 
fought  brilliantly  at  Cerro  Gordo  and  Churubusco,  and  was 
brevetted  brigadier-general.  He  attained  the  army  rank  in 
1858.  Major-General  William  O.  Butler,  under  Zachary 
Taylor,  was  one  of  the  heroes  of  Monterey.  Born  in  Ken- 
tucky, son  of  Percival  Butler  of  Kilkenny,  who  was  one  of 
the  famous  five  Butler  brothers  of  the  Revolutionary  War 
whom  Washington  once  toasted  as  "The  Butlers  and  their 
five  sons,"  General  Butler  succeeded  General  Scott  in  com- 
mand of  the  entire  American  army  in  Mexico  in  February, 
1848.  Another  of  clear  Irish  descent  who  fought  under 
Zachary  Taylor  was  Major-General  George  Croghan,  whose 
father,  born  in  Sligo,  Ireland,  had  fought  in  the  Revolution. 
He  himself  took  part,  as  we  have  seen,  in  the  War  of  1812, 
and  now  was  at  the  front  before  Monterey.  Once,  when  a 
Tennessee  regiment  wavered  under  a  hot  converging  fire, 
Croghan  rushed  to  the  front  and,  taking  off  his  hat,  shouted, 
"Men  of  Tennessee,  your  fathers  conquered  with  Jackson  at 
New  Orleans.  Come,  follow  me!"  and  they  followed  in  a 
successful  assault.  Major-General  Robert  Paterson,  who 
was  born  at  Strabane,  Ireland,  and  was  the  son  of  a  '98  man, 
saw  service  in  1812,  and  became  major-general  of  militia 
in  Pennsylvania,  whence  he  went  to  the  Mexican  War.  He 
also  lived  to  serve  in  the  War  of  the  States. 

Among  Irish-named  officers  mentioned  honorably  in  official 
despatches  are  Major  Edward  H.  Fitzgerald,  Major  Patrick 
J.  O'Brien;  Captain  Casey,  chosen  to  lead  the  first  storming 
party  at  Chapultcpec;  Captains  Hogan,  Byrne,  Kane,  Mc- 
Elvin,  McGill,  Burke,  Barny,  O'Sullivan,  McCarthy,  Mc- 
Garry,  and  McKeon.  Captain  Mayne  Reid,  the  novelist,  a 
native  of  Ireland,  was  in  the  storming  of  Chapultepec.  Theo- 
dore O'Hara,  the  poet,  served  with  the  Kentucky  troops  and 
was  brevetted  major  for  gallantry  at  Contreras  and  Churu- 
busco, while  on  the  staff  of  General  Franklin  Pierce  (after- 


134 


THE  GLORIES  0?  IRELAND 


wards  President  of  the  United  States).  O'Hara's  magnifi- 
cent poem,  "The  Bivouac  of  the  Dead,"  has  made  his  name 
immortal.  It  was  written  on  the  occasion  of  the  interment 
at  Frankfort,  Ky.,  of  the  Kentucky  dead  of  the  Mexican 
War,  where 

"Glory  guards  with  solemn  round 
The  bivouac  of  the  dead." 

Irwin  C.  McDowell,  who  was  brevetted  captain  at  Buena 
Vista,  commanded  a  corps  in  the  Civil  War.  George  A.  Mc- 
Call,  brevetted  lieutenant-colonel  at  Palo  Alto,  was  a  major- 
general  in  the  Civil  War.  Francis  T.  Bryan  was  a  hero  of 
Buena  Vista.  Lieutenant-Colonel  Thomas  P.  Moore  and 
Captain  James  Hogan  both  won  fame  in  the  3rd  Dragoons. 
Lieutenant  Thomas  Claiborn  of  the  Mounted  Rifles  became  a 
colonel  in  the  Confederate  Army.  Lieutenant-Colonel  J.  W. 
Geary  fought  brilliantly  and  was  to  be  heard  from  later  with 
renown. 

Colonel  John  F.  Reynolds  of  the  3rd  Artillery  lived  to  be 
major-general  in  the  Civil  War,  and  to  fall  gloriously  at  Get- 
tysburg. Nor  must  we  forget  Major  Folliot  Lally^s  bravery 
at  Cerro  Gordo;  Second  Lieutenant  Thomas  W.  Sweeny,  a 
brigadier-general  of  the  Civil  War  and  the  planner  of  the 
Fenian  invasion  of  Canada  in  1866;  Lieutenant  Henry  B. 
Kelly  of  the  2nd  Infantry,  afterwards  a  Confederate  colonel ; 
Captain  Martin  Burke  of  the  1st  Artillery,  killed  at  Churu- 
busco ;  nor  Lieutenant  William  F.  Barry  of  the  2nd  Artillery, 
a  brigadier-general  in  the  Civil  War.  There  were  scores  of 
other  Irish  named  officers.  In  the  whole  American  force  of 
30,000  engaged,  the  Irish  bom  and  Irish  descended  troops  of 
all  arms  were  numbered  by  thousands. 

It  was,  however,  in  the  Civil  War  that  the  flood  of  Irish 
valor  and  loyalty  to  the  American  Republic  was  at  its  height 
The  2,800,000  enlistments  on  the  Northern  side  stood  probably 
for  1,800,000  individual  soldiers  serving  during  the  four  years 
of  the  war.  Not  less  than  40  per  cent,  of  these  were  Irish 
born  or  of  Irish  descent.  Of  the  337,800  men  furnished  by 
the  State  of  New  York,  51,206  were  natives  of  Ireland  out  of 
the  total  of  134,178  foreign  borm,  or  38  per  cent,  of  the  latter, 
while  not  less  than  80,000  of  Irish  descent  figured  among  the 


THB  nCHTING  RACE 


135 


203,600  native  born  soldiers.  Of  the  2,261  engagements  in 
the  war,  few  there  were  that  saw  no  Irishmen  in  arms,  and 
certainly,  in  every  one  of  the  519  engagements  that  made  Vir- 
ginia a  great  graveyard,  the  Irish  figured  largely.  Of  the 
1,000,516  mustered  out  in  1865,  not  less  than  150,000  were 
natives  of  Ireland,  while  those  of  Irish  descent  numbered  hun- 
dreds of  thousands.  They  fought  well  everywhere,  and  it 
would  require  volumes  to  give  the  names  and  deeds  of  those 
who  distinguished  themselves  more  than  their  fellows. 

One  name,  however,  shines  with  a  great  blaze  above  them 
all,  the  name  of  Philip  H.  Sheridan,  one  of  the  three  supreme 
soldiers  of  the  Union,  Ulysses  S.  Grant  and  William  Tecum- 
seh  Sherman  being  the  others.  Had  Ireland  furnished  only 
Sheridan  to  the  Union  cause,  her  service  would  be  beyond 
reward.  He  was  born  in  Albany,  N.  Y.,  in  March,  1831,  the 
year  after  his  parents,  John  and  Mary  Sheridan,  arrived 
there  from  the  Co.  Cavan,  in  Ireland.  The  family  moved  to 
Somerset,  Perry  Co.,  Ohio,  the  following  year.  There  Philip 
began  village  life.  How  he  gained  the  beginning  of  an  educa- 
tion ;  worked  in  a  grocery  store ;  became  a  bookkeeper ;  longed 
for  a  West  Point  nomination  and  got  it;  how  he  worked 
through  the  Academy  in  1853;  served  as  lieutenant  on  the 
frontier,  in  Texas,  California,  and  Oregon,  until  the  outbreak 
of  the  Civil  War,  when  he  was  promoted  captain  and  ordered 
east,  can  be  quickly  told.  His  history  until  the  fall  of  the 
Confederacy  would  need  many  long  chapters.  His  military 
genius  included  all  the  requirements  of  a  great  captain,  and 
his  opportunties  of  exhibiting  all  his  qualities  in  action  came 
in  rapid  succession.  In  every  service  from  quartermaster  to 
army  commander  his  talents  shone.  His  tremendous  vigor, 
incredible  mental  alertness,  and  genius  for  detail,  added  to 
his  skill  and  outreach,  continually  set  him  forward.  He  stood 
5  feet  5  inches  high,  but  somehow  looked  taller,  owing  to  his 
erect,  splendid  bearing.  There  was  something  in  the  full 
chest,  the  thick  muscular  neck,  the  heavy  head,  the  dark  blaz- 
ing eyes,  and  the  quick  bodily  movements  that  arrested  atten- 
tion. His  name  has  come  down  to  this  generation  mainly  as 
a  great  cavalry  leader,  but  he  was  a  natural  commander  of  all 
arms,  a  great  tactician,  a  born  strategist.    His  campaign  of 


136 


TH^  GLORIES  Of  IRELAND 


the  Shenandoah  Valley  was  a  whirlwind  of  success.  His  great 
battles  around  Richmond  were  wonderful.  General  Grant's 
opinion  of  Sheridan,  given  thirteen  years  after  the  war,  sums 
up  the  man.  It  is  here  quoted  from  J.  R.  Young's  book, 
Around  the  World  with  General  Grant,  It  runs,  in  part, 
as  follows: 

"As  a  soldier,  as  a  commander  of  troops,  as  a  man  capable 
of  doing  all  that  is  possible  with  any  number  of  men,  there 
is  no  man  living  greater  than  Sheridan.  He  belongs  to  the 
very  first  rank  of  soldiers,  not  only  of  our  country  but  of 
the  world.  I  rank  Sheridan  with  Napoleon  and  Frederick 
and  the  great  commanders  in  history.  No  man  ever  had  such 
a  faculty  of  finding  things  out  as  Sheridan,  of  knowing  all 
about  the  enemy.  He  was  always  the  best  informed  of  his 
command  as  to  the  enemy.  Then  he  had  that  magnetic  qual- 
ity of  swaying  men,  which  I  wish  I  had,  a  rare  quality  in  a 
general.  I  don't  think  anyone  can  give  Sheridan  too  high 
praise.'* 

Praise  from  U.  S.  Grant  is  praise  indeed.  A  peculiar  fea- 
ture of  the  Civil  War  was  the  growth  of  the  generals :  Grant, 
Sherman,  Sheridan,  Thomas,  Meade,  all  conspicuously  exper- 
ienced it.  With  Sheridan,  however,  one  point  is  notable, 
namely,  that  Ke  triumphed  in  every  branch  in  each  successive 
extension  of  the  field  of  his  duties,  and  he  went  from  captain 
to  major-general  in  three  years  of  the  regular  army.  His 
care  for  his  men  was  constant.  His  troops  were  always  the 
best  fed,  best  clothed,  best  rested  in  the  armies  on  either  side, 
but  on  no  troops  was  there  more  constant  call  for  endeavor, 
and  they  were  never  found  to  fail  him.  In  action  he  is  de- 
scribed as  severe,  peremptory,  dominating,  but  his  determina- 
tions were  mighty  things,  not  to  be  interfered  with.  He 
wanted  things  done  and  done  at  once.  His  men  of  all  grades 
soon  conceded  that  he  knew  best  what  to  do,  and  set  about 
doing  it  accordingly.  Out  of  action  he  was  joyous  of  spirit, 
but,  in  fight  or  out  of  it,  his  alertness  and  his  lightning-like 
decisions  marked  him  apart  from  every  other  commander.  His 
career  in  the  Tennessee  campaign  was  meteoric.  Of  his  score 
and  more  of  great  conflicts,  the  most  picturesque  was  his 
wonderful  battle  at  Cedar  Creek,  to  fight  which  he  rode  at 


THE  LIGHTING  RACS 


137 


breakneck  speed  "from  Winchester  twenty  miles  away" 
through  the  dust  and  debris  of  a  broken  army  to  the  extreme 
front,  rallying  the  scattered  regiments  and  turning  a  defeat 
into  a  crushing  victory,  which  recovered*  all  that  had  been 
lost,  taking  25  cannon  and  1,200  prisoners,  and  driving  for 
miles  the  lately  victorious  enemy  under  Early.  Captain  P.  J. 
O'Keefe  was  one  of  the  two  who  made  the  ride  beside  him. 
The  battles  of  Waynesboro,  Five  Forks,  and  Sailor's  Creek 
showed  the  same  brilliant  generalship  on  the  part  of  Sheridan. 
His  hold  on  the  affection  of  the  army  and  the  admiration  of 
the  people  continued  to  the  day  of  his  death,  August  5,  1888, 
when  he  held  the  headship  of  the  United  States  army  as  gen- 
eral in  succession  to  the  great  Sherman. 

General  Sheridan,  towards  the  end  of  the  war,  had  a  soldier's 
difference  with  Major-General  George  G.  Meade,  commander 
of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  but  that  did  not  blind  "Little 
Phil"  to  the  real  merit  of  the  victor  in  the  tremendous  three 
days'  battle  of  Gettysburg,  handling  an  army  new  to  his  hand 
against  Robert  E.  Lee.  The  Meade  family  is  of  Irish  descent. 
George  Meade,  the  grandfather,  came  from  Dublin  and  was 
a  patriot  in  the  American  Revolutionary  War.  General  Meade 
commanded  a  division  at  Antietam  and  a  corps  at  Fredericks- 
burg, and  held  command  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  to  the 
end  of  the  war.  He  was  a  fine  soldier  and  gentleman.  Of 
quiet  manners  at  most  times,  he  was  most  irascible  in  the  hour 
of  battle,  but  his  temper  did  not  becloud  his  judgment.  Gen- 
eral James  Shields  and  General  Irwin  McDowell,  both  fine 
Irish  soldiers,  have  already  been  mentioned. 

It  would  be  hard  to  compass  in  a  brief  article  even  the  names 
of  the  general  officers  of  Irish  blood  in  the  Civil  War.  General 
John  Logan,  who  fought  with  the  western  armies,  is  worthy  of 
high  and  honorable  mention,  as  is  General  Thomas  Francis 
Meagher,  a  patriot  in  Ireland,  a  prisoner  in  Australia,  a  soldier 
of  dash  in  the  Civil  War.  Meagher's  Irish  Brigade  left  a  record 
of  valor  unsurpassed :  their  charge  at  Fredericksburg  up  Marye's 
Heights  alone  should  give  them  full  meed  of  fame.  General 
Michael  Corcoran,  a  native  of  Ireland,  commanded  the  wholly 
Irish  69th  Regiment  when  it  departed  for  the  war  in  1861,  and 
after  his  exchange  from  a  Confederate  prison  raised  and 


138 


THE  GLORIES  01?  IRELAND 


organized  the  Corcoran  Legion.  Major-General  McDowell 
McCook  commanded  brilliantly  in  the  western  campaigns. 
Who  has  not  heard  of  the  Fighting  McCooks? — a  family  of 
splendid  men  and  hardy  warriors.  Brigadier-General  Thomas 
C.  Devin  was  a  superb  cavalry  commander,  who  led  the  first 
division  of  Sheridan's  Shenandoah  army  through  all  its  great 
operations.  General  James  Mulligan  of  Illinois  was  of  the 
true  fighting  breed.  Colonel  Timothy  O'Meara  led  his  superb 
Irish  Legion  from  Illinois  up  Missionary  Ridge.  Brigadier- 
General  C.  C.  Sullivan  of  western  army  fame  was  one  of  the 
five  generals,  headed  by  Rosecrans,  who  recommended  Phil 
Sheridan  for  promotion  to  brigadier-general  after  the  battle 
of  Booneville  as  "worth  his  weight  in  gold."  General  Bran- 
nan  was  a  gallant  division  commander  in  the  Middle  Tennes- 
see campaign.  Colonel  William  P.  Carlin  made  a  name  at 
Stone  River.  General  James  T.  Boyle,  of  the  Army  of  the 
Ohio  under  Buell,  was  the  brave  man  whose  promotion  to 
division  commander  left  a  vacancy  for  "Little  Phil",  that  was 
to  be  an  immediate  stepping  stone  to  higher  opportunity.  Brig- 
adier-General McMillan,  who  commanded  the  second  brigade 
at  Cedar  Creek;  Colonel  Thomas  W.  Cahill,  9th  Connecticut; 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Alfred  Neafie  of  the  156th  New  York; 
Captain  Charles  McCarthy  of  the  175th  New  York ;  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Alex.  J.  Kenny  of  the  8th  Indiana;  Lieutenant  Ter- 
rence  Reilly  of  the  Horse  Artillery,  all  won  distinction  in  the 
Shenandoah  Valley.  Such  splendid  fighters  as  General  James 
R.  O'Beirne,  Colonel  Guiney,  Colonel  Cavanagh,  Colonel  John 
P.  Byron,  Colonel  Patrick  Gleason,  General  Denis  F.  Burke, 
wrote  their  names  red  over  a  score  of  battle  fields,  but  one  can- 
not hope  to  cover  more  than  a  fraction  of  the  brilliant  men  of 
Irish  blood  who  led  and  bled  in  the  long,  hard,  and  strenuous 
struggle.  The  69th  New  York  Regiment  was  the  mother  of  a 
dozen  Irish  regiments,  including  the  Irish  Brigade  of  Mea- 
gher and  the  Corcoran  Legion.  The  9th,  28th,  and  29th  regi- 
ments of  Massachusetts  were  all  Irish.  A  gallant  Irishman, 
born  at  Fermoy,  was  Brigadier-General  Thomas  Smyth,  who 
made  a  name  and  died  in  the  battles  around  Richmond.  There 
was  not  a  regiment  from  the  middle  western  and  western 
States  that  did  not  hold  its  quota  of  Irishmen  and  sons  of  the 


THE  ]?ICHTIN0  RACR 


139 


Irish.  After  the  names  of  Porter  and  Farragut  in  the  Navy 
stands  next  highest  in  honor  that  of  Vice-Admiral  Stephen  C. 
Rowan,  born  in  Dublin,  of  the  famous  family  that  produced 
Hamilton  Rowan,  one  of  the  foremost  of  the  United  Irishmen. 
It  was  the  son  of  the  vice-admiral,  a  lieutenant  in  the  army, 
who  carried  "the  message  to  Garcia"  from  the  United  States 
War  Department  to  the  Cuban  commander  in  the  eastern 
jungle  of  Cuba,  before  the  outbreak  of  the  war  with  Spain, 
and  did  it  so  well  and  bravely  through  such  difficulties  and 
dangers  that  his  name  will  stand  for  "the  faithful  messenger" 
forever. 

As  a  consequence  of  their  stand  with  the  American  people 
in  the  Civil  War,  the  position  of  the  whole  mass  of  the  Irish 
and  Irish-American  people  was  vastly  uplifted  in  American 
eyes.  The  unlettered  poverty  of  scores  of  thousands  of  Irish 
immigrants,  who  came  in  multitudes  from  1846  on,  had  made 
an  unfavorable  and  false  impression;  their  red  blood  on  the 
battle  field  washed  it  out. 

On  the  southern  side  as  well,  Irish  valor  shone.  While 
the  great  flood  of  the  mid-century  Irish  immigration  had  spread 
itself  mainly  north,  east,  and  west,  the  larger  cities  of  the 
South  also  received  a  share.  The  slave  system  precluded  the 
entry  of  free  labor  into  the  cotton,  corn,  lumber,  and  sugar 
lands  of  the  South,  but  such  cities  as  New  Orleans,  Mobile, 
Charleston,  Savannah,  Vicksburg,  and  Richmond  gave  varied 
employment  to  many  of  the  Irish  who  made  their  homes  in  the 
Southland,  and  so  they  came  to  furnish  thousands  of  recruits 
to  the  local  Confederate  levies.  The  "Louisiana  Tigers",  who 
fought  so  valiantly  at  Gettysburg  on  the  Southern  side,  in- 
cluded many  Irish.  The  Georgia  brigade,  that  held  the  Con- 
federate line  atop  of  Marye's  Heights  at  Fredericksburg,  up 
which  the  Irish  brigade  so  heroically  charged,  had  whole  com- 
panies of  Irish.  There  were  scores  of  Irish  in  many  of  the 
regiments  that  made  Pickett's  memorable  charge  at  Gettys- 
burg. All  through  the  Confederate  armies  were  valiant  de- 
scendants of  the  earlier  Irish  immigration  that  settled  the 
uplands  of  the  Carolinas  and  Virginia  and  the  blue  grass  re- 
gion of  Kentucky.  Most  famous,  most  glorious  of  these  was 
"Stonewall"  Jackson— Lleutenant-General  Thomas  Jonathan 


140 


THR  GLORIES  0?  IRKtAND 


Jackson — next  to  Robert  E.  Lee  the  greatest  soldier  on  the 
southern  side.  No  more  splendid  soldier-figure  rises  out  of 
the  contest  Educated  at  West  Point,  serving  in  Mexico, 
then  a  professor  of  philosophy — and  artillery — next  a  volun- 
teer with  his  State  v^hen  Virginia  took  arms  against  the  Union, 
his  long  and  brilliant  service  included  a  large  share  in  the  vic- 
tories at  Bull  Run,  Gaines  Mill,  Malvern  Hill,  Cedar  Moun- 
tain, Harper's  Ferry,  Antietam,  Fredericksburg,  and  Chancel- 
lorsville,  where  he  was  accidentally  wounded  by  his  own  men. 
He  was  once  defeated  by  General  Shields,  as  has  been  noted. 
The  piety  and  purity  of  his  life  belie  the  supposed  necessity 
for  the  coarser  traits  that  are  thought  to  go  with  the  terrible 
trade.  General  Patrick  R.  Cleburne  was  born  in  1828,  near 
Cork,  Ireland.  He  was  in  the  English  army  three  years,  and, 
coming  to  the  United  States,  became  a  lawyer  at  Helena,  Ark. 
He  enlisted  in  the  Confederate  army  as  a  private,  rose  rapidly 
to  the  command  of  a  brigade,  and  made  a  great  name  at 
Shiloh.  As  major-general  he  led  divisions  at  Murfreesboro 
and  Chickamauga,  and  was  thanked  by  the  Confederate  Con- 
gress. He  fell  at  the  battle  of  Franklin — a  soldier  of  com- 
manding presence,  skill,  and  daring,  beloved  by  the  whole 
Army  of  the  West.  The  gallant  colonel  Thomas  Claiborne 
was  a  striking  cavalryman.  It  was  Lieutenant  Thomas  A. 
Claiborne  of  the  1st  South  Carolina  who,  with  Corporal  B. 
Brannan,  lashed  the  broken  flagstafiF  on  Fort  Sumter  in  June, 
1864,  when,  under  a  withering  fire,  the  flag  of  the  Confederacy 
had  been  shot  away.  The  fighting  of  Major-General  Gary  of 
South  Carolina  around  Richmond  was  desperate.  He  was  the 
last  to  leave  the  city  when  it  fell,  as  told  by  Captain  Sullivan : 
"He  galloped  at  night  through  the  burning  city,  and  at  the 
bridge  over  the  James  cried  out,  *We  are  the  rear  guard.  It 
is  all  over;  blow  the  bridge  to  h — 1!'  and  went  on  into  the 
night." 

The  story  of  the  Civil  War  is  a  mine  of  honor  to  the  Irish, 
and  Irishmen  should  set  it  forth  at  length.  Here  it  can  be 
merely  glanced  at. 

The  war  of  1898  with  Spain — that  great  patriotic  efflores- 
cence— was  brief  in  its  campaigning.  Immediately  provoked 
by  the  blowing  up  of  the  U.  S.  S.  Maine  in  Havana  harbor  on 


THE  FIGHTING  RAC^ 


141 


February  15,  war  was  declared  on  April  19.  Admiral  Dewey 
sank  the  Spanish  fleet  in  Manila  Harbor,  May  1.  The  first 
troops  landed  on  Cuban  soil  June  1.  The  first — and  last — real 
land  battle  before  Santiago  occurred  on  July  1-2,  with  13,500 
troops  on  the  American  side  against  an  available  Spanish 
force  somewhat  less  in  number,  but  holding  strongly  for- 
tified and  entrenched  positions  around  the  town.  The  advance 
and  charges  uphill  necessary  to  capture  El  Caney  and  the  steep 
heights  of  San  Juan  called  for  desperate  courage.  It  was 
there,  however,  and  the  Irish  in  the  army  exhibited  dash  and 
persistence,  as  duty  demanded.  In  the  second  day's  fighting 
the  Spanish  assaults  on  the  American  positions  were  repelled, 
and  the  land  fighting  was  over.  The  Americans  in  the  two 
days  lost  over  10  per  cent  killed  and  wounded.  The  destruc- 
tion of  Cervera's  fleet  on  its  attempt  to  escape  from  Santiago 
on  July  3  ended  the  struggle.  With  the  regiment  of  Rough 
Riders,  under  Theodore  Roosevelt — who  says  he  reckons  "an 
O'Brien,  a  Redmond,  and  a  man  from  Ulster"  among  his  for- 
bears— were  many  gallant  Irishmen — Kellys,  Murphys,  Burkes, 
and  Doyles,  for  instance.  His  favorite  captain,  **Bucky" 
O'Neill  of  Arizona,  fell  at  the  foot  of  San  Juan.  The  white 
regiments  of  the  regular  army  had  their  quota  of  Irish,  as  had 
most  of  the  volunteers.  The  9th  Massachusetts  was  all  Irish. 
The  69th  New  York,  all  Irish,  never  reached  the  front  in  the 
war,  but  shared  the  fate  of  the  150,000  troops  cantoned 
through  the  Southern  States,  their  only  effective  enemies  being 
dysentery,  typhoid,  and  malaria. 

A  little  splash  of  Irish  blood  came  with  the  Fenian  dash  into 
Canada  on  June  1,  1866.  There  had  been  active  preparations 
for  a  real  invasion  by  some  50,000  Irish-born  or  Irish-fathered 
soldiers  who  had  served  in  the  Civil  War.  The  American 
government,  using  its  army  force,  intervened  to  prevent  the 
bellicose  movement,  not,  however,  before  Colonel  John  O'Neill, 
who  had  served  in  the  cavalry  with  Sherman  on  his  march  to 
the  sea,  with  Captain  Starr,  one  of  Kilpatrick's  cavalry,  Cap- 
tain O'Brien,  and  about  700  well-armed  men,  all  Civil  War  vet- 
erans, had  slipped  across  the  Niagara  River  at  Fort  Erie.  They 
mad'*  short  work  of  all  in  sight,  threw  out  a  couple  of  hun- 
dred men  who  burned  a  bridge  and  tore  up  the  railroad  tracks. 


142 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


Their  scouts  fired  on  a  small  British  detachment,  which  ran. 
On  the  morning  of  June  2  news  came  of  a  larger  Canadian 
force  advancing,  and  O'Neill  went  out  to  meet  them.  Deploy- 
ing his  men  in  a  field  near  the  high  road  at  a  place  called  Ridg- 
way,  he  sent  his  pickets  forward.  They  found  heavy  ground 
in  front  and  about  three-quarters  of  a  mile  away  some  1,400 
men  of  the  "Queen's  Own"  of  Toronto  and  the  Hamilton  Vol- 
unteers advancing  rapidly  in  line.  O'Neill,  after  a  few  rounds, 
withdrew  his  pickets,  and  the  Canadians,  taking  the  move- 
ment for  flight,  came  briskly  on.  As  soon  as  they  were  clear 
of  cover,  O'Neill,  firing  a  volley,  gave  orders  for  a  charge. 
At  it  they  went  with  a  cheer,  and  the  whole  Canadian  line  gave 
way.  They  ran  as  fast  as  their  legs  could  carry  them,  leaving 
some  fifty  killed  and  wounded.  After  chasing  them  for  two 
miles,  O'Neill  halted  his  men  and  brought  them  back  to  Fort 
Erie,  where  they  intrenched.  The  Canadians  did  not  stop 
until  they  reached  Colburne,  eighteen  miles  away.  The  Fenian 
loss  was  twenty-five.  In  the  night  O'Neill  learned  that  no 
help  was  coming  from  the  United  States*  side,  while  news 
reached  him  that  a  force  of  5,000  Canadian  and  British  regu- 
lars was  advancing  on  Fort  Erie.  Accordingly,  at  2  a.  m.  on 
June  3,  he  surrendered  to  the  United  States  forces  with  400  of 
his  men,  who  were  detained  for  a  few  days  on  the  U.  S.  S. 
Michigan  and  then  let  go.  The  balance  of  his  force,  about  250 
men,  escaped  in  groups  across  the  river.  There  was  another 
little  victorious  skirmish  with  the  Canadians  lower  down  under 
Captain  Spear,  who  also  slipped  back  over  the  border  unpur- 
sued.  What  fighting  took  place  was  workmanlike  and  cred- 
itable. 

There  was  a  flicker  of  Irish  fighting  spirit  in  the  Boer  War. 
Many  thousands,  no  doubt,  were  in  the  English  army  of 
250,000  men  brought  against  the  30,000  Boers,  but  there  was  a 
small  "Irish  Brigade"  that  fought  on  the  Boer  side,  and  was 
notably  engaged  at  Spion  Kop,  where  the  English  were  driven 
so  sweepingly  from  their  position  by  desperate  charges. 

In  the  War  of  1870,  between  France  and  Prussia,  the  good 
wishes  of  the  Irish  went  with  France,  for  the  sake  of  the  old 
friendship,  largely  helped,  no  doubt,  by  the  fact  that  at  the 
stunmit  of  army  command  was  Marshal  MacMahon.  a  de- 


THIS  LIGHTING  RACE 


143 


scendant  of  a  warrior  of  the  old  Irish  Brigade.  His  service  in 
Algiers;  his  skill  and  daring  in  the  Crimean  War  before  Se- 
bastopol,  where  he  led  the  division  which  stormed  the  Mala- 
koff ;  his  victories  in  the  Italian  War  of  1859  against  Austria, 
including  the  great  battle  of  Magenta,  all  made  him  a  striking, 
romantic  figure.  He  failed  in  1870  against  the  Prussians  at 
Worth,  and  was  made  prisoner  with  his  army  at  Sedan,  but 
he  suppressed  the  Commune  after  the  war  and  was  President 
of  France  from  1873  to  1879.  The  device  by  which  300  Irish- 
men took  part  on  the  French  side  in  the  war  with  Germany  has 
a  grim  humor.  They  went  as  aides  in  an  ambulance  corps 
fitted  out  in  Dublin  by  subscription,  but,  once  on  French  soil, 
enlisted  in  the  army.  "Maybe  we  can  kill  as  well  as  we  can 
cure,"  said  one  of  them.  The  Compagnie  irlandaise,  as  it 
was  called,  did  creditable  work,  and  was  in  the  last  combat 
with  the  Prussians  at  Montbellard.  Their  captain,  M.  W. 
Kirwan,  was  offered  a  Cross  of  the  Legion  of  Honor,  but  for 
some  reason  declined  it.  Dr.  Constantine  J.  McGuire,  who 
won  the  decoration  for  bravery  before  Paris  during  the  siege 
of  the  Commune,  did,  however,  accept  it,  receiving  the  cross 
from  the  hands  of  Marshal  MacMahon,  and,  hale  and  hearty, 
wears  the  red  ribbon  on  occasion  in  New  York  today. 

Even  as  this  chronicle  of  daring  deeds  and  daring  doers  is 
being  penned,  in  the  ranks  and  as  commanding  officers  on  the 
side  of  the  allies  in  the  far-flung  battle  lines  of  the  great  Euro- 
pean war,  are  men  of  Irish  birth,  and,  let  it  not  be  forgotten, 
not  a  few  of  the  opposing  side  are  the  descendants  of  the  Irish 
military  geniuses  who,  in  days  gone  by,  fought  so  gallantly 
across  the  continent  "from  Dunkirk  to  Belgrade".  They  are 
all,  every  man  of  them,  bearing  bravely,  as  of  yore,  their  own 
part  amid  the  dangers  and  chances  of  the  fray. 

If  the  inspiring  story  is  of  necessity  here  barely  sketched 
in  outline,  it  nevertheless  clearly  indicates  that,  as  it  has  been 
for  two  thousand  years  of  Irish  history,  so  it  will  be  to  the 
end  of  the  human  chapter — the  Irish  race  is  the  Fighting  Race, 
and  willing,  even  eager,  to  risk  life  itself  for  vital  issues. 


144 


THJ©  GLORIES  OF  IRKI*AND 


Refkbences  : 

Keating's,  MacGeoghegan's,  Mitchel's  Histories  of  Ireland;  J.  C. 
O'Callaghaii :  The  Irish  Brigades  in  the  Service  of  France,  The  Greeu 
Book;  Lossing:  Field  Book  of  the  Revolution,  Field  Book  of  the 
War  of  1812;  Several  Mexican  War  Histories;  Battles  and  Leaders 
of  the  Civil  War;  The  Irish  at  Home  and  Abroad  (New  York,  1856)  ; 
Canon  O'Hanlon :  Irish- American  History  of  the  United  States ; 
O'Hart;  Irish  Pedigrees;  Martin  I.  Grifl3n:  Life  of  Commodore 
Barry ;  John  D.  Crimmins :  Irish  Miscellany ;  Joseph  Denieffe :  Fenian 
Recollections;  Plowden:  Historical  Review  of  the  State  of  Ireland 
(London,  1803);  Hays:  History  of  the  Irish  (1798)  Rebellion; 
Macaulay :  History  of  England ;  J.  R.  Young :  Around  the  World  with 
General  Grant;  several  valuable  articles  and  records  of  research  by 
Michael  J.  O'Brien  of  New  York. 


THE  SORROWS  OF  IRELAND 


By  John  Jerome  Rooney,  A.  M.,  LL.D. 
C^nnHE  Sorrows  of  Ireland"!   What  a  vision  of  woe  the 


1  words  conjure  up.  The  late  Goldwin  Smith,  himself 
an  Englishman  and  a  Unionist,  in  his  Irish  History  and  the 
Irish  Question,  finds  that  "of  all  histories,  the  history  of  Ire- 
land is  the  saddest.  For  nearly  seven  centuries  it  was  a 
course  of  strife  between  races,  bloodshed,  massacre,  misgov- 
ernment,  civil  war,  oppression,  and  misery." 

The  first  of  the  great  scourges  of  Erin  was  the  coming  of 
the  Danes,  the  bloodthirsty  and  conquest-loving  Vikings  of 
the  North,  the  worshipers  of  Thor  and  Odin,  the  gods  of 
thunder  and  of  strife.  These  warriors,  in  never-ending  inva- 
sions, had  for  four  hundred  years  overrun  Britain  and  finally 
conquered  the  northern  provinces  of  Gaul.  Until  the  end  of 
the  eighth  century  Ireland  had  been  free  from  the  Scandi- 
navian scourge.  About  this  time  the  invaders  made  lodg- 
ments along  the  coasts,  passed  inward  through  the  island, 
burned  and  looted  religious  houses  and  schools  of  learning, 
levied  tribute  upon  the  inhabitants,  and  at  length  established 
themselves  firmly  at  Limerick,  Waterford,  Dublin,  Wex- 
ford, and  Carlingford.  Fortified  towns  were  built,  trad- 
ing communications  with  Britain  and  the  continent  were 
set  up,  and  the  Northman,  though  not  in  actual  possession  of 
the  interior  of  the  island,  was  apparently  in  substantial  con- 
trol of  its  destinies.  Brian  Borumha,  or  Boru,  brother  of 
the  king  of  Munster,  of  the  Dalcassian  race  of  O'Brien,  re- 
fused to  submit,  roused  his  brother,  fought  the  Danes  of 
Limerick  at  Sulchoid  (A.  D.  9G8),  and  captured  Limerick. 
Brian  later  succeeded  his  brother,  became  sovereign  of  all 
Ireland  (A.  D.  1001),  and,  on  Good  Friday,  A.  D.  1014,  joined 
battle  with  the  Danes  upon  the  famous  field  of  Clontarf. 
Here  the  power  of  the  Northmen  was  forever  broken,  Brian 
falling  at  the  moment  of  victory,  while  in  his  tent,  by  the 
hand  of  a  fugitive  Dane. 

With  the  death  of  Brian  the  united  government  dissolved. 
The  provincial  kings,  or  princes,  resumed  separate  authority 


146 


THE  GLORIES  0^  IRELAND 


and  a  struggle  arose  among  them,  with  varying  success,  for  the 
national  sovereignty.  The  central  government  never  had  been 
strong,  as  the  nation  was  organized  on  a  tribal  or  family  basis. 
In  this  weakened  condition  Dermot  MacMurrough,  king  of 
Leinster,  abducted  the  wife  of  O'Rourke,  prince  of  Breffni, 
while  the  latter  was  on  a  pilgrimage.  MacMurrough  was  com- 
pelled to  fly  to  England.  He  sought  the  protection  of  the  An- 
gevin English  king,  Henry  Plantagenet.  As  a  result  of  this  ap- 
peal, a  small  expedition,  headed  by  Strongbow  (A.  D.  1169), 
was  sent  to  Ireland,  and  Waterford,  Wexford,  and  Dublin  were 
taken.  Then  came  Henry  himself,  in  1171,  with  a  fleet  of  240 
ships,  400  knights,  and  4,000  men,  landing  at  Waterford.  This 
expedition  was  the  beginning  of  the  English  attempted  conquest 
of  Ireland — a  proceeding  that,  through  all  the  ruin  and  blood- 
shed of  800  years,  is  not  yet  accomplished.  Henry's  first  act  was 
to  introduce  the  feudal  system  into  that  southern  half  of  the  is- 
land which  he  controlled ;  he  seized  great  tracts  of  land,  which 
he  in  turn  granted  to  his  followers  under  feudal  customs ;  he 
introduced  the  offices  of  the  English  feudal  system  and  the 
English  laws,  and  placed  his  followers  in  all  the  positions  of 
power,  holding  their  lands  and  authority  under  the  feudal 
conditions  of  rendering  him  homage  and  military  service. 

This  was  the  root  of  the  alien  "landlordism"  and  foreign 
political  control  of  future  times  which  became  the  chief  curses 
of  Ireland,  the  prolific  source  of  innumerable  woes.  The  suc- 
ceeding years  till  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  witnessed  the  ex- 
tension, and  at  times  the  decline,  of  the  Anglo-Norman  rule. 
When  Henry  VII.  became  king  of  England  the  Anglo-Norman 
colony  or  "Pale"  had  shrunk  to  two  counties  and  a  half 
around  Dublin,  defended  by  a  ditch.  Many  of  the  original 
Norman  knights  had  become  "more  Irish  than  the  Irish  them- 
selves." Such  was  the  great  family  of  the  Geraldines  or 
Fitzgerald — ^the  most  powerful,  with  the  O'Neills  of  the  North, 
in  Ireland.  A  united  attack  at  this  time  would  most  certainly 
have  driven  out  the  invader;  for  it  must  be  remembered  that 
Dublin,  the  "Pale"— "the  Castle  government"  of  later  times- 
was  the  citadel  of  the  English  foreign  power,  and  before  a 
united  nation  would  most  certainly  have  succumbed. 

When  Henry  VIII.  ascended  the  throne  of  England,  the 
policy  of  peace  in  Ireland  was  continued  during  the  early  por- 


mn  SORROWS  0?  IRELAND  147 

tion  of  his  reign.  Then  came  Henry's  break  with  the  Popo 
over  the  royal  divorce.  The  Irish  beyond  the  Pale,  and 
many  within  it,  were  loyal  to  the  Church  of  their  fathers,  to 
the  faith  of  Patrick,  the  faith  of  the  Roman  See.  To  Henry 
and  his  daughter  Elizabeth,  the  daughter  of  Anne  Boleyn,  who 
displaced  Henry's  lawful  wife,  this  was  treason.  Henceforth, 
to  the  bitterness  of  race  hatred  and  the  pride  of  the  con- 
queror were  to  be  added  the  blackest  of  religious  feuds,  the 
most  cruel  of  religious  persecutions  in  the  history  of  the 
world.  Again  let  Goldwin  Smith,  the  English  Unionist,  de- 
scribe the  result:  "Of  all  the  wars  waged  by  a  civilized  on  a 
barbarous  (sic)  and  despised  race  these  wars  waged  by  the 
English  on  the  Irish  seem  to  have  been  the  most  hideous.  No 
quarter  was  given  by  the  invader  to  man,  woman,  or  child. 
The  butchering  of  women  and  children  is  repeatedly  and  bru- 
tally avowed.  Nothing  can  be  more  horrible  than  the  cool 
satisfaction  with  which  English  commanders  report  their  mas- 
sacres." Famine  was  deliberately  added  to  the  other  horrors. 
What  was  called  law  was  more  cruel  than  war:  it  was  death 
without  the  opportunity  for  defense  and  with  the  hypocrisy  of 
the  forms  of  justice  added. 

Out  of  this  situation  came  the  infamous  Penal  Code,  which, 
by  the  period  of  William  the  Third,  about  1692,  became  a 
finished  system.  This  is  the  "Irish  Code"  of  which  Lord 
Brougham  said:  "It  was  so  ingeniously  contrived  that  an 
Irish  Catholic  could  not  lift  his  hand  without  breaking  it." 
And  Edmund  Burke  said:  "The  wit  of  man  never  devised  a 
machine  to  disgrace  a  realm  or  destroy  a  kingdom  so  perfect 
as  this."  Montesquieu,  the  great  French  jurist-philosopher, 
the  author  of  the  epoch-making  Spirit  of  the  Laws,  com- 
mented :  "It  must  have  been  contrived  by  devils ;  it  ought  to 
have  been  written  in  blood ;  and  the  only  place  to  register  it 
is  in  hell."  Yet  for  two  hundred  years  this  code  of  death, 
national  and  individual,  was  the  supreme  law  of  Ireland. 

Wendell  Phillips,  the  great  American  orator,  in  his  lecture 
on  "Daniel  O'Connell,"  summed  up  this  Penal  Code  in  words 
that  will  not  soon  be  forgotten  by  the  world.  His  reference 
to  Mr.  Froude  is  to  James  Anthony  Froude,  the  English  his- 
torian. He  says : 

"You  know  that,  under  it,  an  Irish  Catholic  could  not  sit  im 

(11)    .. 


148 


THE  GLORIES  OE  IRELAND 


the  House  of  Commons;  he  could  not  hold  any  commission 
from  the  Crown,  either  civil  or  military ;  he  could  be  a  common 
soldier — nothing  more.  He  could  neither  vote,  nor  sit  on  a 
jury,  nor  stand  on  a  v^itness  stand,  nor  bring  a  suit,  nor  be  a 
doctor,  nor  be  a  lawyer,  nor  travel  five  miles  from  his  own 
home  without  a  permit  from  a  justice  of  the  peace.  The  near- 
est approach  that  ever  was  made  to  him  was  a  South  Carolina 
negro  before  the  war.  He  had  no  rights  that  a  Protestant 
needed  to  respect.  If  he  was  a  land-holder,  if  all  his  children 
were  Catholics,  he  was  obliged  to  divide  the  land  equally  be- 
tween them.  This  was  the  English  plan  for  eliminating  the 
Catholic  tenure  of  the  land  and  letting  it  slip  out  of  their 
hands.  Then,  if  any  of  the  children,  during  their  father's  life, 
concluded  to  become  Protestants,  in  such  case  they  took  the 
whole  estate;  or,  indeed,  they  might  compel  the  father  to  put 
his  estate  in  trust  for  their  benefit.  So,  if  the  Catholic  wife 
would  not  go  to  an  Episcopalian  church  once  a  month — which 
she  deemed  it  a  sin  to  do — she  forfeited  her  dower.  But  if 
she  went  regularly,  she  could  have  all  the  estate.  If  a  Catholic 
had  a  lease,  and  it  rose  one-quarter  in  value,  any  Protestant 
could  take  it  from  him  by  bringing  that  fact  to  the  notice  of  a 
justice  of  the  peace.  Three  justices  of  the  peace  might  sum- 
mon any  Catholic  before  them,  and  oblige  him  to  give  up  his 
faith,  or  quit  the  realm.  Four  justices  could  oblige  him  to 
abjure  his  faith  or  sell  his  estates.  If  a  Protestant  paid  one 
dollar  tax,  the  Catholic  paid  two.  If  a  Protestant  lost  a  ship, 
when  at  war  with  a  Catholic  power — and  at  the  time  there  was 
only  one  Protestant  power  in  Europe,  besides  Great  Britain; 
that  was  Holland :  so  that  the  chances  were  nine  to  one  that,  in 
case  of  war.  Great  Britain  would  be  at  war  with  a  Catholic 
power — in  such  a  case,  if  a  Protestant  lost  a  ship,  he  went 
home  and  assessed  the  value  on  his  Catholic  neighbors,  and 
was  reimbursed.  So,  of  education.  We  fret  a  great  deal  on 
account  of  a  class  of  Irishmen  who  come  to  our  shores  and 
are  lacking  in  education,  in  culture,  and  refinement.  But  you 
must  remember  the  bad  laws,  you  must  remember  the  malig- 
nant legislation,  that  sentenced  them  to  a  life  of  ignorance,  and 
made  education  a  felony  in  Catholic  Ireland.  If  an  Irishman 
sent  his  child  to  a  Protestant  schoolmaster,  all  right;  but  if 
the  parent  would  not  do  so,  and  sent  him  to  a  Catholic  school. 


THE  SORROWS  OF  IRELAND 


149 


the  father  was  fined  ten  pounds  a  week ;  and  the  schoolmaster 
was  fined  five  pounds  a  week;  and  for  the  third  offense  he 
was  hung !   But,  if  the  father  determined  that  his  child  should 
be  educated,  and  sent  him  across  the  Channel  to  France,  the 
boy  forfeited  his  citizenship  and  became  an  alien ;  and,  if  dis- 
covered, the  father  was  fined  one  hundred  pounds;  and  any- 
body, except  the  father,  who  harbored  him,  forfeited  all  civil 
rights — that  is,  he  could  not  sue  in  a  court  of  law,  nor  could 
he  vote.   Indeed,  a  Catholic  could  not  marry!   If  he  married 
a  Protestant,  the  marriage  was  void;  the  children  were  ille- 
gitimate.   And,  if  one  Catholic  married  another,  it  required 
the  presence  of  a  priest,  and  if  a  priest  landed  in  Ireland  for 
twenty  minutes,  it  was  death!    To  this  ferocious  'Code*,  Sir 
Robert  Peel,  in  our  own  day,  added  the  climax,  that  no  Catholic 
should  quit  his  dwelling  between  the  hours  of  sunset  and  sun- 
rise, an  exaggeration  of  the  'Curfew  Law'  of  William  the 
Conqueror.   Now,  you  will  hardly  believe  that  this  was  enacted 
as  a  law.   But  Mr.  Froude  alludes  to  this  code.   Yes ;  he  was 
very  honest ;  he  would  paint  England  as  black  as  she  deserved. 
He  said  of  Queen  Elizabeth  that  she  failed  in  her  duty  as  a 
magistrate;  she  failed  towards  Ireland  in  her  capability  of 
being  a  great  ruler.    And  then  he  proceeded,  after  passing 
sentence,  to  give  us  the  history  of  her  reign,  and  showed  that, 
in  very  many  cases,  she  could  not  have  done  any  different. 
For  instance — oh!  it  is  the  saddest,  blackest,  most  horrible 
statement  of  all  history;  it  makes  you  doubt  the  very  possi- 
bility of  human  nature — when  you  read  that  Spenser,  the  poet, 
who  had  the  most  ardent,  most  perfect  ideas  in  English 
poetry — Spenser  sat  at  the  council  board  that  ordered  the 
wholesale  butchery  of  a  Spanish  regiment  captured  in  Ireland, 
and,  to  execute  the  order,  he  chose  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  the 
scholar,  the  gentleman,  the  poet,  the  author,  and  the  most  splen- 
did Englishman  of  his  age!    And  Norris,  a  captain  under 
Sidney,  in  whose  veins  flowed  the  blood  of  Sir  Philip,  writing 
home  to  Elizabeth,  begs  and  persuades  her  to  believe  in 
O'Neiirs  crimes,  and  asks  for  leave  to  send  a  hired  man  to 
poison  him !  And  the  Virgin  Queen  makes  no  objection !  Mr. 
Froude  quotes  a  letter  from  Captain  Norris,  in  which  he  states 
that  he  found  himself  in  an  island  where  five  hundred  Irish 


150 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


(all  women  and  children;  not  a  man  among  them)  had  taken 
refuge  from  the  war;  and  he  deliberately  butchered  every 
living  soul!  And  Queen  Elizabeth,  in  a  letter  still  extant, 
answers  by  saying:  'Tell  my  good  servant  that  I  will  not 
forget  his  good  services/  He  tells  us  that  The  English  nobil- 
ity and  gentry  would  take  a  gun  as  unhesitatingly  as  a  fowler, 
and  go  out  to  shoot  an  Irishman  as  an  Indian  would  a  buf- 
falo.* Then  he  tells  us,  with  amazement,  that  you  never  could 
make  an  Irishman  respect  an  Englishman !  He  points  to  some 
unhappy  Kildare,  the  sole  relic  of  a  noble  house,  whose  four 
uncles  were  slaughtered  in  cold  blood — that  is  the  only  word 
for  thi*  kind  of  execution,  slaughtered — and  he,  left  alone,  a 
boy,  grows  up  characterless  and  kills  an  archbishop.  Every  im- 
petuous, impatient  act  is  dragged  before  the  prejudiced  mind. 
But  when  Mr.  Froude  is  painting  Sir  Walter  and  Spenser, 
blind  no  longer,  he  says:  *I  regret — it  is  very  sad  to  think — 
that  such  things  should  ever  have  been !' " 

Such  was  the  cup  from  which  Ireland  drank  even  into  the 
days  of  men  now  living.  Nor  was  this  all.  The  rise  of  Eng- 
lish manufactures  brought  a  new  chapter  of  woes  to  Ireland. 
The  Irish  cattle  trade  had  been  killed  by  an  Act  of  Charles  II. 
for  the  benefit  of  English  farmers.  The  Irish  then  took  up 
the  raising  of  wool  and  woolen  manufactures.  A  flourishing 
trade  grew  up.  An  English  law  destroyed  it.  In  succession 
the  same  greed  killed  the  cotton,  the  glovemaking,  the  glass- 
making,  and  the  brewing  trades.  These  were  reser\-ed  for  the 
English  maker  and  merchant.  These  crimes  upon  Irish  indus- 
try surpassed  a  thousand-fold  the  later  English  attempts  upon 
the  industries  of  the  American  colonies. 

Under  the  Code,  and  through  the  extreme  poverty  pro- 
duced thereby,  substantially  all  the  land  of  Ireland  passed  out 
of  the  hands  of  the  people.  They  became  mere  serfs  upon  the 
soil.  Their  tribute  was  paid  through  a  rapacious  agent  to  a 
foreign  landlord.  The  improvement  of  the  land  by  the  labor 
of  the  tenant  brought  increase  of  rent.  There  was  no  fixity 
of  tenure  of  the  land.  It  was  held  at  the  will  of  the  agent, 
reflecting  the  rapacity  of  the  non-resident  landlord.  Upon 
these  holdings  the  principal  crop  was  the  potato.  A  failure 
of  this  crop  was  a  failure  to  pay  rent,  eviction  on  the  roadside, 


THE  SORROWS  OF  IRELAND 


151 


and  starvation.  The  results,  after  the  enactment  of  the 
Penal  Code,  and  during  the  greater  part  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  are  thus  described  by  Goldwin  Smith:  "On  such  a 
scene  of  misery  as  the  abodes  of  the  Irish  cotters  the  sun  has 
rarely  looked  down.  Their  homes  were  the  most  miserable 
hovels,  chimneyless,  filthy.  Of  decent  clothing  they  were 
destitute.  Their  food  was  the  potato;  sometimes  they  bled 
their  cattle  and  mixed  the  blood  with  sorrel.  The  old  and 
sick  were  everywhere  dying  by  cold  and  hunger,  and  rotting 
amidst  filth  and  vermin.  When  the  potato  failed,  as  it  often 
did,  came  famine,  with  disease  in  its  train.  Want  and  misery 
were  in  every  face,  the  roads  were  spread  with  dead  and 
dying,  there  was  sometimes  none  to  bear  the  dead  to  the 
grave,  and  they  were  buried  in  the  fields  and  ditches  where 
they  perished.  Fluxes  and  malignant  fevers  followed,  laying 
these  villages  waste.  *I  have  seen,*  says  a  contemporaneous 
witness,  'the  laborer  endeavoring  to  work  at  his  spade,  but 
fainting  for  want  of  food  and  forced  to  quit  it.  I  have  seen 
the  helpless  orphan  exposed  on  the  dunghill,  and  none  to  take 
him  in  for  fear  of  infection.  And  I  have  seen  the  hungry 
infant  sucking  at  the  breast  of  the  already  expired  parent.'  " 

All  these  are  not  only  the  horrors  of  a  hundred  or  two 
hundred  years  ago ;  they  were  repeated  in  ten  thousand  forms 
in  the  awful  famine  days  of  1847.  In  1841  the  population  of 
Ireland  was  8,796,545  persons.  In  1851,  after  four  years  of 
famine,  the  population  was  6,551,970,  leaving  2,244,575  per- 
sons to  be  accounted  for,  and  taking  no  account  of  the  natural 
increase  of  the  population  during  the  ten  years.  Not  less  than 
a  million  and  a  half  of  these  died  of  starvation  and  the  fevers 
brought  on  by  famine.  The  remainder  emigrated  to  foreign  lands. 

In  this  account  of  the  Sorrows  of  Ireland  nothing  has  been 
said  of  the  vast  emigrations,  thousands  upon  thousands  of  per- 
sons in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  leaving  Ireland 
under  forced  deportations,  in  a  practical  selling  into  slavery. 
The  sum  total  of  this  loss  to  Ireland  cannot  be  less  than 
5,000,000  souls.  The  earlier  deportations  were  carried  out  un- 
der the  most  atrocious  circumstances.  Families  were  broken 
up  and  scattered  to  distant  and  separate  colonies,  such  at  Bar- 
bados, the  New  England  States,  and  later  to  the  South  Pacific 


153 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


This  is  but  a  glance  at  some  of  the  wrongs  to  Ireland's 
religious,  intellectual,  and  material  welfare,  wrongs  that  have 
plunged  her  into  an  age-long  poverty.  But  one  of  the  greatest 
of  all  her  sorrows  has  been  the  denial  of  her  national  life,  the 
attempt  to  strangle  her  rightful  aspirations  as  a  free  people. 
Her  autonomy  was  taken  from  her;  her  smallest  legislative  act 
was  the  act  of  a  stranger ;  in  fine,  every  mark  of  political  sla- 
very was  put  upon  her.  A  foreign  soldiery  was,  and  still  is, 
quartered  upon  her  soil.  The  control  of  her  revenues,  of  the 
system  of  taxation,  was  wrested  from  her.  These  became  the 
function  of  a  hateful  resident  oligarchy,  alien  in  everything  to 
the  Irish  people,  and  of  the  English  parliament,  to  which  she 
was  not  admitted  until  the  days  of  Daniel  O'Connell.  And 
then  she  was  admitted  only  through  fear  of  revolution. 

The  dawn  has  come.  The  dark  night  is  almost  past;  the 
heroic  struggle  of  Ireland  is  about  to  close  in  triumph.  Her 
loyalty  to  her  ideals  of  freedom  and  religion  is  to  meet  its 
reward.  The  epitaph  of  Robert  Emmet  will  soon  be  written, 
for  at  last  Ireland  is  certain  of  "taking  her  place  among  the 
nations  of  the  earth." 

REFEarrsCES : 

D* Alton:  History  of  Ireland;  J.  P.  Prendergast :  Cromwellian  Set- 
tlement ;  Barrington :  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Irish  Nation ;  McNevin ; 
Confiscation  of  Ulsster ;  R.  R.  Madden ;  History  of  the  Penal  Laws ; 
Murphy :  Cromwell  in  Ireland ;  T.  A.  Emmet :  Ireland  under  English 
Rule,  2  vols. ;  Mrs.  J.  R.  Green :  Irish  Nationality ;  Walpole :  A  Short 
History  of  the  Kingdom  of  Ireland ;  A.  M.  Sullivan :  Story  of  Ire- 
land ;  Thomas  Moore :  History  of  Ireland ;  Edmimd  Spenser :  View 
of  the  State  of  Ireland  ;  C.  Gavan  Duffy  :  Four  Years  of  Irish  History, 
1845-49 ;  Isaac  Butt :  Land  Tenure  in  Ireland  ;  Justin  McCarthy :  His- 
tory of  our  own  Times;  Johnston  and  Spencer:  Ireland's  Story; 
MacGeoghegan's  History  of  Ireland  and  its  continuation  by  John 
Xlitchel ;  William  Sampson :  Memoirs  of  an  Irish  Exile.,  1S32 ;  John 
Curry :  A  Historical  and  Critical  Review  of  the  Civil  Wars  in  Ireland 
(1775);  John  Boyle:  The  Battlefields  of  Ireland  (1S79)  ;  Speeches 
of  Edmund  Burke,  Daniel  O'Connell,  Henry  Grattan;  Wendell 
Phillips's  Speech  on  Daniel  O'Connell;  Father  Tom  Burke:  Lecturfts 
on  Ireland.  -.'i  ifii; ,  i;  <  -i.  /-  >.  >■ 


IRISH  LEADERS 


By  Shane  Lksue. 

IRISH  leaders  have  proved  far-famed  but  not  long-lived. 
Their  short  and  strenuous  careers  have  burnt  out  in  their 
prime,  and  their  ends  have  been  such  as  attend  conflagrations. 
More  often  they  have  left  a  pall  than  a  light  in  the  heavens, 
for  the  most  brilliant  live^  in  Irish  history  have  led  to  the 
most  tragic  deaths.  The  Destiny  which  allotted  them  impos- 
sible tasks  has  given  them  immortality  on  the  scenes  of  their 
glorious  failure. 

They  differ  from  leaders  of  other  countries,  v^ho  divide  the 
average  pittances  o/  success  or  ill  success  on  the  road  to  hon- 
ored retirement.  Few  of  the  heroes  among  modern  nations 
have  left  such  vivid  and  lasting  memory  as  "the  strong  men 
of  Ireland."  During  the  nineteenth  century  their  lore  and  cult 
have  traversed  the  whole  world  in  the  wake  of  the  great  emi- 
grations. Whether  they  failed  or  succeeded  in  wresting  the 
independence  and  ideals  of  Ireland  for  a  while  from  the  fell 
clutch  of  circumstance,  they  live  with  their  race  forever. 

Under  Plantagenet  and  Tudor  rule,  the  Irish  leaders  pre- 
sented a  sullen  but  armed  resistance.  A  never  completed  inva- 
sion was  met  by  sporadic  raids  and  successive  risings.  A  race 
of  military  outlaws  was  fashioned,  which  accounts  for  much 
in  Irish  character  today.  Previously  the  Irish,  like  all  Celtic 
civilization,  was  founded  on  the  arts,  on  speech,  and  on  law, 
rather  than  on  war  and  feudalism. 

Even  Irish  militancy  was  crushed  in  the  Williamite  wars, 
and  the  race,  deprived  of  its  original  subsistence  as  well  as  of 
its  acquired  defense,  sank  into  the  stupor  of  penal  times.  Those 
who  should  have  been  leaders  of  Ireland  became  marshals  of 
Austria  and  France. 

Gradually  it  was  learnt  that  the  pen  is  mightier  than  the 
sword  and  the  human  voice  more  potent  than  the  sound  of 
cannon — and  the  constitutional  struggle  developed,  not  without 
relapse  and  reverse.  To  Dean  Swift  must  be  attributed  the 
change  in  the  national  weapon  and  the  initiation  of  a  leader- 
ship of  resistance  within  the  law,  which  has  lasted  into  modem 


154 


THR  GLORIES  OP  IREI^AND 


times.  Accident  made  Swift  an  Irishman,  and  a  chance 
attempt  to  circulate  debased  coins  in  Ireland  for' the  benefit  of 
a  debased  but  royal  favorite  made  him  a  patriot.  Swift  drove 
out  Wood's  halfpence  at  the  pen-point.  He  shamed  the  gov- 
ernment, he  checked  the  all-powerful  Walpole,  and  he  roused 
the  manhood  of  Ireland  towards  independence  in  legislation. 
He  never  realized  what  a  position  history  would  give  him.  To 
himself  he  seemed  a  gloomy  failure,  to  his  contemporaries  a 
popular  pamphleteer,  but  to  posterity  he  is  the  creator  of  public 
conscience  in  Ireland.  He  was  the  father  of  patriotic  journal- 
ism, and  the  first  to  defend  Ireland's  rights  through  literature. 
Though  his  popularity  was  quenched  in  lunacy,  his  impress 
upon  Irish  politics  remains  as  powerful  and  lasting  as  upon 
English  literature. 

Within  the  so-called  Irish  parliament  sprang  forth  the  first 
of  a  long  line  of  orators,  Henry  Flood.  He  was  the  first  to 
study  the  Constitution  for  purposes  of  opposition.  He 
attacked  vice-regal  government  in  its  own  audit-house.  Pen- 
sion and  corruption  he  laid  bare,  and  upon  the  people  he 
breathed  a  spirit  of  independence.  Unfortunately  he  was  not 
content  with  personal  prominence.  He  accepted  office,  hoping 
thereby  to  benefit  Ireland.  His  voice  became  lost  to  the 
higher  cause,  and  another  man  rose  in  his  stead,  Henry 
Grattan.  The  American  war  tested  the  rival  champions  of 
Liberty.  Flood  favored  sending  Irish  troops,  "armed  negotia- 
tors" he  called  them,  to  deal  with  the  revolted  colonists.  Grat- 
tan nobly  reviled  him  for  standing — "with  a  metaphor  in  his 
mouth  and  a  bribe  in  his  pocket,  a  champion  against  the  rights 
of  America,  the  only  hope  of  Ireland  and  the  only  refuge  of 
the  liberties  of  mankind."  Flood  collapsed  under  his  ignoble 
honors.  He  was  not  restored  by  returning  to  patriotic  oppo- 
sition. Grattan's  leadership  proved  permanent  politically  and 
historically.  His  name  connotes  the  high  water-mark  of  Irish 
statesmanship.  The  parliament  which  he  created  and  whose 
rights  he  defined  became  a  standard,  and  his  name  a  talisman 
and  a  challenge  to  succeeding  generations.  The  comparative 
oratory  of  Grattan  and  Flood  is  still  debated.  Both  after  a 
manner  were  unique  and  unsurpassed.  Flood  possessed  stay* 
in%  power  in  sheer  invective  and  sustained  reasoning.  Grattan 


IRISH  I^EADERS 


was  fluent  in  epigram  and  most  inspiring  when  condensed,  and 
he  had  an  immense  moral  advantage.  The  padiament  which 
made  him  a  grant  was  independent,  but  it  was  from  one  of 
subservience  that  Flood  drew  his  salary.  Henceforth  Grattan 
was  haunted  by  the  jealous  and  discredited  herald  of  himself. 
A  great  genius.  Flood  lacked  the  keen  judgment  and  careless 
magnanimity  without  which  leadership  in  Ireland  brings  mis- 
understanding and  disaster.  In  the  English  House  he  achieved 
total  failure.  Grattan  followed  him  after  the  Union,  but  re- 
tained the  attention  if  not  the  power  of  Dublin  days.  Neither 
influenced  English  affairs,  and  their  eloquence  curiously  was 
considered  cold  and  sententious.  Their  rhapsody  appeared 
artificial,  and  their  exposition  labored.  The  failure  of  these 
men  was  no  stigma.  What  is  called  "Irish  oratory"  arose  with 
the  inclusion  of  the  Celtic  under  strata  in  politics. 

Burke's  speeches  were  delivered  to  an  empty  house.  Though 
he  lived  out  of  Ireland  and  never  became  an  Irish  leader  in 
Ireland,  Burke  had  an  influence  in  England  greater  than  that  of 
any  Irishman  before  or  since.  The  beauty  and  diction  of  his 
speech  fostered  future  parliamentary  speaking.  Macaulay, 
Gladstone,  Peel,  and  Brougham  were  suckled  on  him.  His 
farthest  reaching  achievement  was  his  treatment  of  the  French 
Revolution.  His  single  voice  rolled  back  that  storm  in  Europe. 
But  no  words  could  retard  revolution  in  Ireland  herself.  Venal 
government  made  the  noblest  conservative  thinking  seem  trea- 
son to  the  highest  interests  of  the  country.  The  temporary 
success  of  Grattan's  parliament  had  been  largely  won  by  the 
Volunteers.  They  had  been  drilled,  ostensibly  against  foreign 
invasion,  but  virtually  to  secure  reforms  at  home.  Their 
power  became  one  with  which  England  had  to  reckon,  and 
which  she  never  forgave.  Lord  Charlemont,  their  president, 
was  an  estimable  country  gentleman,  but  not  a  national  leader. 
A  more  dashing  figure  appeared  in  the  singular  Earl  of  Bristol. 
Though  an  Irish  bishop  and  an  English  peer,  he  set  himself 
in  the  front  rank  of  the  movement,  assuming  with  general 
consent  the  demeanor  and  trappings  of  royalty.  He  would 
not  have  hesitated  to  plunge  Ireland  into  war,  had  he  obtained 
Gbarlemont's  position.   But  it  was  not  so  fated. 

After  forcing  parliamentary  independence  the  Volunteers 


156 


THIS  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


meekly  disbanded,  and  the  United  Irishmen  took  their  place. 
The  brilliancy  of  Grattan's  parliament  never  fulfilled  national 
aspirations.  Bristol  was  succeeded  by  another  recruit  from 
the  aristocracy — Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald.  With  Wolfe  Tone 
and  Robert  Emmet  he  has  become  legendary.  All  three  at- 
tained popular  canonization,  for  all  three  sealed  their  brief 
leadership  with  death. 

Lord  Edward  was  a  dreamer,  an  Irish  Bayard,  too  chival- 
rous to  conspire  successfully  and  too  frankly  courageous  to 
match  a  government  of  guile.  Tone  was  far  more  dangerous. 
He  realized  that  foreign  invasion  was  necessary  to  successful 
rebellion,  and  he  allowed  no  scruple  or  obstacle  in  his  path. 
He  washed  his  hands  of  law  and  politics  entirely.  To  divert 
Napoleon  to  Ireland  was  his  object  and  the  total  separation 
of  Ireland  his  ambition.  The  United  Irishmen  favored  the 
invasion,  which  the  Volunteers  had  been  formed  to  repel. 
The  feud  between  moral  and  physical  force  broke  out.  The 
failure  of  the  sterner  policy  in  1798  did  not  daunt  Emmet 
from  his  ill-starred  attempt  in  1803.  He  combined  Lord  Ed- 
ward's chivalry  with  some  abilities  worthy  of  Tone,  but  he 
failed.  The  failure  he  redeemed  by  a  swan-song  from  the  dock 
and  a  demeanor  on  the  scaffold  which  have  become  part  of 
Irish  tradition. 

After  the  Union,  Irish  leaders  sprang  up  in  the  English 
House,  which  Pitt  had  unwittingly  made  the  cockpit  of  the 
racial  struggle.  Far  from  absorbing  the  Irish  element,  the 
Commons  found  themselves  forced  to  resist,  rally,  and  finally 
succumb. 

The  Irish  House  cannot  be  dismissed  without  mention  of 
Curran.  He  was  a  brilliant  enemy  of  corruption  and  servility. 
O'Connell  said  "there  was  never  so  honest  an  Irishman," 
which  may  account  for  his  greater  success  as  a  lawyer  than  a 
politician.  To  be  an  Irish  leader  and  a  successful  lawyer  is 
given  to  no  man.  For  the  former  the  sacrifice  of  a  great  career 
is  needed.  This  sacrifice  Daniel  O'Connell  was  prepared  to 
make.  His  place  in  history  will  never  be  estimated,  for  few 
have  been  so  loved  or  hated,  or  for  stronger  reasons.  Never 
did  a  tribune  rising  to  power  lift  his  people  to  such  sudden 
hope  and  success.    Never  did  a  champion  leave  his  followers 


IRISH  LEADERS 


15T 


at  his  death  and  decline  to  more  terrible  despair.  Friend  and 
foe  admit  his  immensity.  He  was  the  greatest  Irishman  that 
ever  lived  or  seemingly  could  live.  In  his  own  person  he  con- 
tained the  whole  genius  of  the  Celt.  Ireland  could  not  hold  his 
emotions,  which  overflowed  into  the  world  for  expression.  He 
rose  on  the  crest  of  a  religious  agitation,  but,  Emancipation 
won,  he  had  the  foresight  to  associate  the  Irish  cause  with  the 
advent  of  Reform  and  Liberalism  throughout  Europe.  He 
sounded  the  notes  of  free-trade  and  anti-slavery.  What  he  said 
in  parliament  one  day,  Ireland  re-echoed  the  next.  To  her  he 
was  all  in  all,  her  hero  and  her  prophet,  her  Messias  and  her 
strong  deliverer.  On  the  continent  he  roughly  personified 
Christian  Democracy. 

In  public  oratory  O'Connell  introduced  a  new  style.  Torren- 
tial and  overwhelming  as  Flood  and  Grattan  had  never  been,  he 
proved  more  successful  if  less  polished.  The  exaggerations  of 
Gaelic  speech  found  outburst  in  his  English.  Peel's  smile  was 
"the  silver  plate  on  a  coffin",  Wellington  "a  stunted  corporal", 
and  Disraeli  "the  lineal  descendant  of  the  impenitent  thief." 

It  sounds  bombastic,  but  in  those  feudal  forties  it  rang  more 
magnificent  than  war.  Single-voiced  he  overawed  the  host  of 
bigots,  dullards,  and  reactionaries.  Unhappily,  he  let  his 
people  abandon  their  native  tongue,  while  teaching  them  how  to 
balance  the  rival  parties  in  England,  the  latter  a  policy  that  has 
proved  Ireland's  fortune  since.  He  loosed  the  spirit  of  sec- 
tarianism in  the  tithe  war,  and  he  crushed  the  Young  Ireland 
movement,  which  bred  Fenianism  in  its  death  agony.  But  he 
made  the  Catholic  a  citizen.  Results  stupendous  as  far-reach- 
ing sprang  from  his  steps  every  way. 

The  finest  pen-sketch  of  O'Connell  is  by  Mitchel,  who  says, 
"besides  superhuman  and  subterhuman  passions,  yet  withal,  a 
bQundless  fund  of  masterly  affectation  and  consummate  his- 
trionism,  hating  and  loving  heartily,  outrageous  in  his  merri- 
nient  and  passionate  in  his  lamentation,  he  had  the  power  to 
^^^e ,  otto  n^ien  hatp  or  love,  Uugh  or  weep,  at  his  good 
pleasure."  :  >  -  ; 

Yet. during  his  lifetime  tberic  lived  others  worthy. of  national 
leadership.  O'Brien,  Duffyj  and,  Davis  played  their  part  in 
England  as  well  as  in  Ireland.   Father  Mathew  founded  the 


158 


TH«  GLORIAS  OF  IRELAND 


Temperance,  as  Feargus  O'Conor  the  Chartist,  movement.  And 
therc'was  an  orator  who  fascinated  Gladstone — Sheil. 

Father  Mathew  succeeded  in  keeping  many  millions  of  men 
sober  during  the  forties  until  the  great  Famine  engulfed  his 
work  as  it  did  O'Connell's.  To  him  is  due,  as  a  feature  of 
Irish  life,  the  i)rass  band  with  banners,  which  he  originally 
organized  as  a  counter-intoxicant. 

Feargus  O'Conor  founded  Radical  Socialism  in  England. 
As  the  Lion  of  Freedom,  he  enjoyed  a  popularity  with  English 
workmen  approaching  that  of  O'Connell  in  Ireland.  He  ended 
in  lunacy,  but  he  had  the  credit  of  forwarding  peasant  pro- 
prietorship far  in  advance  of  his  times. 

Sheii  was  a  tragic  orator — "an  iambic  rhapsodist",  O'Con- 
nell called  him — who  might  have  been  leader,  did  not  a  greater 
tragedian  occupy  the  stage.  And  Sheil  was  content  to  be 
O'Connell's  organizer.  Without  O'Connell's  voice  or  pres- 
ence, he  was  his  rhetorical  superior,  excelling  in  irony  and  the 
by-plays  of  speech  for  which  O'Connell  was  too  exuberant. 
Shell's  speeches  touch  exquisite  though  not  the  deep  notes  of 
O'Connell,  whom  he  criticized  for  "throwing  out  broods  of 
sturdy  young  ideas  upon  the  world  without  a  rag  to  cover 
them."  He  discredited  his  master  and  his  cause  by  taking 
office.  The  fruits  of  Emancipation  were  tempting  to  those 
wlio  had  borne  the  heat  of  the  day,  but  there  was  a  rising 
school  of  patriots  who  refused  acquiescence  to  anything  less 
than  total  freedom. 

The  Young  Irelanders  reincarnated  the  men  of  "ninety- 
eight."  They  were  neither  too  late  nor  too  soon.  They 
snatched  the  sacred  torch  of  Liberty  from  the  dying  hands  of 
O'Connell,  who  summoned  in  vain  old  Ireland  against  his 
young  rivals.  But  men  like  Davis  and  Duffy  appealed  to  t>'pes 
OlConnell  never  swayed.  He  could  carry  the  mob,  but  poet, 
journalist,  and  idealist  were  enrolled  with  Young  Ireland.  For 
this  reason  thejiistory  of  their  failure  is  brighter  in  literature 
than  the  tale  of  O'Connell's  triumphs.  To  read  Duffy's  "Young 
Ireland"  and.MitchcI's  "Jail  Joumal",'with  draughts  from  the 
Spirit  of  the  Nxition,  is  to  relive  the  period.  Without  the  Young 
Irelanders,  Irish  Nationalism  imight  not  have  furvived  the 
Famin*. 


IRISH  l,tM>tRS 


16» 


Mitchel,  AS  open  advocate  of  physical  force,  became  father 
to  Fenianism.  An  honest  conspirator  and  brilliant  writer,  he 
proved  that  the  pen  of  journalism  was  sharper  than  the  Irish 
pike,  Carlyle  described  him  as  "a  fine  elastic-spirited  young 
fellow,  whom  I  grieved  to  see  rushing  on  destruction  palpable, 
by  attack  of  windmills."  Destruction  came  surely,  but  coupled 
with  immortality.  He  was  transported  as  a  felon  before  the 
insurrection,  while  his  writings  sprang  up  in  angry  but  un- 
armed men. 

Mitchel  and  O'Connell  both  sought  the  liberation  of  Ire- 
land, but  their  viewpoint  differed.  Mitchel  thought  only  of 
Liberty;  O'Connell  not  unnaturally  considered  the  "Libera- 
tor." His  refusal  to  allow  a  drop  of  blood  to  be  shed  caused 
Young  Ireland  to  secede.  Only  when  death  removed  his  influ- 
ence could  the  pent-up  feelings  of  the  country  break  out  under 
Smith  O'Brien.  If  Mitchel  was  an  Irish  Robespierre,  O'Brien 
was  their  Lafayette.  His  advance  from  the  level  of  dead  aris- 
tocracy had  been  rapid.  From  defending  Whigs  in  Parlia- 
ment he  passed  to  opposition  and  "contempt  of  the  House." 
He  resigned  from  the  Bench  from  which  O'Connell  had  been 
dismissed,  became  a  Repealer,  adding  the  words  "no  compro- 
mise," and  finally  gloried  in  his  treason  before  the  House.  His 
next  step  brought  a  price  upon  his  head. 

Grave  and  frigid,  but  inwardly  warmhearted  and  passionate, 
O'Brien  had  little  aptitude  for  rebellion.  But  the  death  pen- 
alty (commuted  to  transportation)  which  he  incurred  went  far 
to  redeem  his  forlorn  failure.  Mitchel,  who  shared  his  Aus- 
tralian imprisonment,  left  a  fine  picture  of  "this  noblest  of 
Irishmen,  thrust  in  among  the  off-scourings  of  England's  gaols, 
with  his  home  desolated  and  his  hopes  ruined,  and  defeated 
life  falling  into  the  sere  and  yellow  leaf.  A  man,  who  cannot 
be  crushed,  or  bowed,  or  broken;  anchored  immovably  upon 
his  own  brave  heart  within;  his  clear  eye  and  soul  open  as 
ever  to  all  the  melodies  and  splendors  of  heaven  and  earth,  and 
calmly  waiting  for  the  angel,  Death." 

The  Irish  cause  was  not  revived  until  the  Fenian  move- 
ment. Disgust  with  the  politicians  drove  the  noblest  into  their 
ranks.   In  Stephens  they  found  an  organizing  chief,  in  Boyle 


100 


THE  GLORIES  0^  IRELAND 


O'Reilly  a  poet,  and  in  John  O'Leary  a  political  thinker,  men 
who  under  other  conditions  had  achieved  mundane  success. 
The  Fenians  were  defended  by  Isaac  Butt,  a  big-hearted,  broad- 
minded  lawyer,  who  afterwards  organized  a  party  to  convince 
Englishmen  that  Repeal  was  innocuous,  when  calle(3  "Home 
Rule."  The  people  stood  his  patient  ways  patiently,  but  when  a 
more  desperate  leader  arrived  they  transferred  allegiance,  and 
Butt  died  of  a  broken  heart. 

Parnell  took  his  place  and  began  to  marshal  the  broken  forces 
of  Irish  democracy  against  his  own  class.  Butt  had  been  a 
polite  parliamentarian,  reverencing  the  courtesy  of  debate  and 
at  heart  loving  the  British  Constitution.  Parnell  felt  that  hi? 
mission  lay  in  breaking  rather  than  interpreting  the  law.  The 
well-bred  House  stared  and  protested  when  he  defied  their 
chosen  six  hundred.  Parnell  faced  them  with  their  own  mar- 
ble callousness.  He  outdid  them  in  political  cynicism  and  out- 
bowed  them  in  frigid  courtesy,  while  maintaining  a  policy  be- 
fore which  tradition  melted  and  a  time-honored  system  col- 
lapsed. In  one  stormy  decade  he  tore  the  cloak  from  the 
Mother  of  Parliaments,  reducing  her  to  a  plain-speaking  demo- 
cratic machine.  Through  the  breach  he  made,  the  English 
labor  party  has  since  entered. 

He  united  priest  and  peasant,  physical  and  moral  force, 
under  him.  Pie  could  lay  Ireland  under  storm  or  lull  at  his 
pleasure.  His  achievement  equalled  his  self-confidence.  He 
reversed  the  Irish  land  system  and  threw  English  politics  out  of 
gear.  With  the  balance  of  power  in  his  hand,  he  made  Tory 
and  Radical  outbid  each  other  for  his  support.  He  was  no 
organizer  or  orator,  but  he  fascinated  able  tien  to  conduct  his 
schemes,  as  Napoleon  used  his  marshals.  On  .1  pregnant  day 
he  equaled  the  achievement  of  St.  Paul  and  converted  Glad- 
stone, who  had  once  been  his  gaoler.  Gladstone  became  a 
Home  Ruler,  and  henceforth  English  politics  knew  no  peace. 

Parnell  stood  for  the  fall  and  rise  of  many.  Under  his 
banner  Irish  peasants  became  human  beings  with  human  rights. 
He  felled  the  feudal  class  in  Ireland  and  undermined  them  in 
England,  incalculable  forces  were  set  to  destroy  him.  A 
forged  letter  in  the  Times  classed  him  with  assassins,  while  an 


IRISH  LICADERS 


Illegal  Commission  was  sent  to  try  his  whole  movement.  It 
is  history  that  his  triumphant  vindication  was  followed  by  a 
greater  fall.  The  happiness  of  Ireland  was  sucked  into  the 
maelstrom  of  his  ruin.  He  refused  to  retire  from  leadership 
at  Gladstone's  bidding,  and  Ireland  staggered  into  civil  war. 
The  end  is  known — Parnell  died  as  he  had  lived.  Of  his  moral 
fault  there  is  no  palliation,  but  it  may  be  said  he  held  his 
country's  honor  dearer  than  his  own,  for  he  could  not  bear  to 
see  her  win  even  independence  by  obeying  the  word  of  an 
Englishman. 

RjCTEKErsCES  : 

Lecky :  Leaders  of  Irish  Opinion ;  Mitchel :  Jail  Journal ;  Duffy : 
Young  Ireland;  O'Brien:  Life  of  Parnell;  D'Alton;  History  of  Ire- 
land. 


IRISH  HEROINES 


By  Alic4  Miixigan. 


THE  worth  and  glory  of  a  nation  may  well  be  measured 
and  adjudged  by  the  typical  character  of  its  woman- 
hood: not  so  much,  I  would  say,  by  the  eminence  attained  to 
by  rarely  gifted,  exceptionally  developed  individuals,  as  by  the 
prevalence  of  noble  types  at  every  period,  and  amongst  all 
classes  of  the  community,  and  by  their  recurrence  from  age  to 
age  under  varying  circumstances  of  national  fortune. 

Judged  by  such  a  standard,  Ireland  emerges  triumphant  and 
points  to  the  roll  of  her  chequered  history,  the  story  of  her 
ancient  race,  with  confidence  and  pride.  Gaze  into  the  farthest 
vistas  of  her  legendary  past,  into  the  remotest  eras  of  which 
tradition  preserves  a  misty  memory,  and  the  figure  of  some 
fair,  noble  woman  stands  forth  glimmering  like  a  white  statue 
against  the  gloom.  At  every  period  of  stern  endeavor,  through 
all  the  generations  of  recorded  time,  the  pages  of  our  annals 
are  inscribed  with  the  names  of  mothers,  sisters,  wives,  not 
unworthy  to  stand  there  beside  those  of  the  world-renowned 
heroes  of  the  Gael. 

In  the  ancient  tales  of  Ireland  we  read  of  great  female 
chysicians  and  distinguished  female  lawyers  and  judges. 
There  were  ban-file,  or  women-poets,  who,  like  the  file,  were 
at  the  same  time  soothsayers  and  poetesses,  and  there  are  other 
evidences  of  the  high  esteem  in  which  women  were  held. 
There  can  be  no  doubt,  to  judge  by  the  elaborate  description! 
of  garments  in  the  saga-texts,  that  the  women  were  very  skil- 
ful in  weaving  and  needlework.  The  Irish  peasant  girls  of 
today  inherit  from  them  not  a  little  of  their  gift  for  lace- 
making  and  linen-embroidery.  Ladies  of  the  highest  rank 
practiced  needlework  as  an  accomplishment  and  a  recreation. 
Some  of  the  scissors  and  shears  they  used  have  come  to  light 
in  excavations. 

In  the  stories  of  the  lores  of  the  ancient  Irish",  whether 
immortals  or  mortals,  the  woman's  role  is  the  more  accentu- 
ated, while  in  Teutonic  tradition  man  plays  the  chief  part. 
Again,  it  has  often  been  remarked  that  the  feminine  interest 


IRISH  HSiROINES 


163 


is  absent  from  the  earlier  heroic  forms  of  some  literatures. 
Not  so,  however,  in  the  earliest  saga-texts  of  the  Irish.  Many 
are  the  famous  women  to  whom  the  old  tales  introduce  us  and 
Viho  stand  out  and  compel  attention  like  the  characters  of  the 
Greek  drama.  Ever}'one  knows  of  the  faithful  Deirdre,  the 
heroine  of  the  touching  story  of  the  "Exile  of  the  Sons  of 
Usnech",  and  of  her  death;  of  the  proud  and  selfish  Medb. 
the  ambitious  queen  of  Connacht,  the  most  warlike  and  most 
expert  in  the  use  of  weapons  of  the  women  of  the  Gael — far 
superior  in  combat  and  counsel  to  her  husband,  Ailill ;  of 
Emer,  the  faithful  wife  of  Cuchulainn ;  of  Etain  of  the  Horses 
(that  was  her  name  in  Fairyland)  ;  and  of  many  others  too 
numerous  to  mention. 

It  is  with  the  introduction  of  Christianity  into  Ireland  that 
the  Irish  woman  came  into  her  rightful  place,  and  attained  the 
preponderating  influence  which  she,  ever  since,  has  held  among 
the  Celtic  people.  In  the  period  which  followed  the  evangeli- 
zation of  the  island  many  were  the  "women  of  worth"  who 
upheld  the  honor  and  glory  of  "Inisfail  the  Fair",  and  women 
were  neither  the  less  numerous  nor  the  less  ardent  who  hung 
upon  the  lips  of  the  Apostle  of  Ireland. 

Amid  the  galaxy  of  the  saints,  how  lustrous,  how  divinely 
fair,  shines  the  star  of  Brigid,  the  shepherd  maiden  of  Faug- 
hard,  the  disciple  of  Patrick  the  Apostle,  the  guardian  of  the 
holy  light  that  burned  beneath  the  oak-trees  of  Kildare !  Over 
all  Ireland  and  through  the  Hebridean  Isles,  she  is  renowned 
above  any  other.  We  think  of  her,  moreover,  not  alone,  but 
as  the  centre  of  a  great  company  of  cloistered  maidens,  the 
refuge  and  helper  of  the  sinful  and  sorrowful,  who  found  in 
the  gospel  that  Patrick  preached  a  message  of  consolation  and 
deliverance.  Let  it  be  remembered  that  the  shroud  of  Patrick 
is  deemed  to  have  been  woven  by  Brigid's  hand;  that  when 
she  died,  in  525,  Columcille,  the  future  apostle  of  Scotland,  was 
a  child  of  four.  So  she  stands  midmost  of  that  trilogy  of  saints 
whose  dust  is  said  to  rest  in  Down. 

Who  that  hears  of  Columcille  will  forget  How  he  won  that 
name,  "dove  of  the  Church",  because  of  his  early  piety,  and 
that  surely  bespeaks  a  mother's  guiding  care.  Ethne,  mother 
of  Columcille,  remains  a  vague  but  picturesque  figure,  seen 
(12) 


164 


THIC  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


against  the  background  of  the  rugged  heath-clad  hills  of  Tir- 
Conal  by  the  bright  blue  waters  of  Gartan's  triple  lake.  Her 
hearth-stone  or  couch  is  shown  there  to  this  day,  where  once 
in  slumber,  before  the  birth  of  her  son,  she  saw  in  a  glorious 
visionary  dream  a  symbol  of  his  future  greatness.  A  vast 
veil  woven  of  sunshine  and  flowers  seemed  to  float  down 
upon  her  from  heaven:  an  exquisitely  poetic  thought,  which 
gives  us  warrant  to  believe  that  Columcille's  poetic  skill  was 
inherited  from  his  mother. 

Ronnat,  the  mother  of  his  biographer,  St.  Adamnan,  plays  a 
more  notable  part  in  history,  for,  according  to  an  ancient  Gaelic 
text  recently  published,  it  was  to  her  that  the  women  of  Ire- 
land owed  the  royal  decree  which  liberated  them  from  mili- 
tary service.  The  story  goes  that  once,  as  she  walked  beside  the 
Boyne,  after  some  sanguinary  conflict,  she  came  upon  the 
bodies  of  two  women  who  had  fallen  in  battle.  One  grasped 
a  reaping  hook,  the  other  a  sword,  and  dreadful  wounds  dis- 
figured them.  Horrified  at  the  sight,  she  brought  strong 
pressure  to  bear  upon  her  son,  and  his  influence  in  the  councils 
of  the  land  availed  to  bring  about  the  promulgation  of  the 
decree  which  freed  women  from  war-service. 

Our  warrior  kings  had  noble  queens  to  rule  their  house- 
holds, and  of  these  none  stands  out  so  distinctly  after  long 
lapse  of  time  as  Gormlai,  the  daughter  of  Flann  Siona,  and 
wife  of  Nial  Glondubh.  Her  story  has  in  it  that  element  of 
romance  which  touches  the  heart  and  wins  the  sympathy  of 
all  who  hear  it. 

Her  father  was  king  of  the  Meathan  branch  of  the  Clan 
Nial,  and  ard-ri  of  Ireland  for  thirty-seven  years.  Nial 
Glondubh  was  king  of  Tir-Eoghain,  and  heir  of  Flann  in  the 
high  kingship,  for  at  that  era  it  was  the  custom  for  the  kings 
of  Meatk  and  of  Tyrone  to  hold  the  supreme  power  alternately. 
In  order  to  knit  north  and  south,  Flann  betrothed  his  beau- 
tiful daughter  to  Cormac  macCuillenan,  king  of  Cashel,  an 
ideal  husband,  one  would  have  thought,  for  a  poetess  like 
Gormlai,  for  Cormac  was  the  foremost  scholar  of  the  day; 
but  his  mind  was  so  set  on  learning  and  religion  that  he  took 
holy  orders  and  became  bishop-king  of  Cashel,  repudiating 
his  destined  bride.   Gormlai  was  then  given  as  wife  to  Cearbh- 


IRISH  HEROINES 


165 


ail,  king  of  Leinster,  and  was  was  waged  against  Cormac 
who  was  killed  in  the  battle  of  Ballymoon.  Coming  home 
wounded,  Cearbhail  lay  on  his  couch,  and  while  tended  by 
Gormlai  and  her  ladies  told  the  story  of  the  battle  and  boasted 
of  having  insulted  the  dead  body  of  King  Cormac.  Gormlai 
reproached  him  for  his  ignoble  conduct  in  such  terms  that  his 
anger  and  jealousy  flamed  up,  and  striking  her  with  his  fist 
he  hurled  her  to  the  ground. 

Gormlai  rose  indignant  and  left  his  house  forever,  returning 
to  the  palace  of  King  Flann,  and  on  Cearbhail's  death  she  at 
last  found  a  true  lover  and  worthy  mate  in  Nial  Glondubh, 
who  brought  her  northward  to  rule  over  the  famous  palace  of 
Aileach.  In  916  Nial  became  high  king,  but  the  place 
of  honor  was  also  the  place  of  danger,  and  soon  he  led  the 
mustered  hosts  of  the  north  against  the  pagan  foreigners,  who 
held  Dublin  and  Fingal,  and  he  fell  in  battle  at  Rathfarnham. 

A  poem,  preserved  for  us  ever  since,  tells  us  that  Gormlai 
was  present  at  his  burial  and  chanted  a  funeral  ode.  Her 
long  widowhood  was  a  period  of  disconsolate  mourning.  At 
length  it  is  said  she  had  a  dream  or  vision,  in  which  King  Nial 
appeared  to  her  in  such  life-like  shape  that  she  spread  her 
arms  to  embrace  him,  and  thus  wounded  her  breast  against 
the  carven  head-post  of  her  couch,  and  of  that  wound  she  died. 

Many  saintly,  many  noble,  many  hospitable  and  learned 
women  lightened  the  darkness  that  fell  over  Ireland  after  the 
coming  of  the  Normans. 

I  pass  to  the  time  when  a  sovereign  lady  filled  the  throne 
of  England,  "the  spacious  days  of  great  Elizabeth,"  which 
were  also  the  period  of  Ireland's  greatest,  sternest  struggle 
against  a  policy  of  extermination  towards  her  nobles  and  sup- 
pression of  her  ancient  faith.  Amid  all  the  heroes  and  leaders 
of  that  wondrous  age  in  Ireland,  there  appears,  like  a  reincar- 
nation of  legendary  Medb,  a  warlike  queen  in  Connacht, 
Grace  O'Malley,  "Granuaile"  of  the  ballads.*  Instead  of  a 
chariot,  she  mounts  to  the  prow  of  a  swift-sailing  galley,  and 
sweeps  over  the  wild  Atlantic  billows,  from  isle  to  isle,  from 
coast  to  coast,  taking  tribute  (or  is  it  plunder?)  from  the  clans. 
First  an  O'Flaherty  is  her  husband,  then  a  Norman  Burke.  In 
Clare  Island  they  show  her  castle  tower,  with  a  hole  in  the 


166 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


wall,  through  which  they  say  she  tied  a  cable  from  her  ship, 
ready  by  day  or  night  for  a  summons  from  her  seamen.  She 
voyaged  as  far  as  London  town,  and  stood  face  to  face  with 
the  ruffed  and  hooped  Elizabeth,  meeting  her  offer  of  an  Eng- 
lish title  with  the  assertion  that  she  was  a  princess  in  her  own 
land. 

The  mother  of  Red  Hugh  O'Donnell,  Ineen-dubh,  though 
daughter  of  the  Scottish  Lord  of  the  Isles,  was  none  the  less 
of  the  old  Irish  stock.  Her  character  is  finely  sketched  for 
us  by  the  Franciscan  chronicler  who  wrote  the  story  of  the 
captivity  and  mighty  deeds  of  her  son.  When  the  clans  of 
Tir-Conal  assembled  to  elect  the  youthful  chieftain,  he  writes : 
"It  was  an  advantage  that  she  came  to  the  gathering,  for  she 
was  the  head  of  the  advice  and  counsel  of  the  Cinel-Conail, 
and,  though  she  was  slow  and  deliberate  and  much  praised 
for  her  womanly  qualities,  she  had  the  heart  of  a  hero  and 
the  sou!  of  a  soldier."  Her  daughter,  Nuala,  is  the  "woman 
of  the  piercing  wail"  in  Siangan's  translation  of  the  bard's 
lament  for  the  death  of  the  Ulster  chieftains  in  Rome. 

Modern  critics  like  to  interpret  the  "Dark  Rosaleen"  poem 
as  ar.  expression  of  Red  Hugh's  devotion  to  Ireland,  but  I 
think  that  Rose,  O'Doherty's  daughter,  wife  of  the  peerless 
Owen  Roc,  deserv-es  recognition  as  she  whose 

"Holy  delicate  white  hands  should  girdle  him  with  steel." 

The  record  has  come  down  to  us  that  she  prompted  and 
encouraged  her  husband  to  return  from  the  low-countries  and 
a  position  of  dignity  in  a  foreign  court  to  command  the  war 
in  Ireland,  and  in  her  first  letter,  ere  she  followed  him  over 
sea,  she  asked  eagerly:  "How  stands  Tir-Conal?"  True 
daughter  of  Ulster  was  Owen's  wife,  so  let  us  henceforth 
acknowledge  her  as  the  Roisin  dubh,  "dark  Rosaleen",  of  the 
sublimest  of  all  patriot  songs. 

In  the  Cromwellian  and  Williamite  wars,  we  see  the  mourn- 
ful mothers  and  daughters  of  the  Gaeldom  passing  in  sad 
procession  to  Connacht,  or  wailing  on  Shannon  banks  for 
the  flight  of  the  "Wild  Geese."  But  what  of  Limerick  wall, 
what  of  the  valorous  rush  of  the  women  of  the  beleaguered  city 
to  stem  the  inroads  of  the  besiegers  and  rally  the  defenders 


IRISH  HEROINES 


167 


to  the  breach?  The  decree  of  St.  Adamnan  was  quite  for- 
gotten then,  and  when  manly  courage  for  a  moment  was 
daunted,  woman's  fortitude  replaced  and  reinspired  it. 

And  fortitude  was  sorely  needed  through  the  black  years 
that  followed — the  penal  days,  when  Ireland,  crushed  in  the 
dust,  bereft  of  arms,  achieved  a  sublimer  victory  than  did 
even  King  Brian  himself,  champion  of  the  Cross,  against  the 
last  muster  of  European  heathendom. 

Yes,  her  women  have  done  their  share  in  making  Ireland 
what  she  is,  a  heroic  land,  unconquered  by  long  centuries  of 
wrath  and  wrong,  a  land  that  has  not  abandoned  its  Faith 
through  stress  of  direst  persecution  or  bartered  it  for  the  lure 
of  worldly  dominion ;  no — nor  ever  yielded  to  despair  in  face 
of  repeated  national  disaster. 

,It  was  this  fidelity  to  principle  on  the  part  of  the  Irish 
Catholic  people  which  won  for  them  the  alliance  of  all  that 
were  worthiest  among  the  Protestants  of  north  and  south  in 
the  days  of  the  Volunteers  and  the  United  Irishmen.  What 
interesting  and  pathetic  portraits  of  Irishwomen  are  added 
to  our  roll  at  this  period!  None  is  more  tenderly  mournful 
than  that  of  Sarah  Curran,  the  beloved  of  Robert  Emmet. 
The  graceful  prose  of  Washington  Irving,  the  poignant  verses 
of  Moore,  have  enshrined  the  memory  of  her,  weeping  for 
him  in  the  shadow  of  the  scaffold,  dying  of  heart-break  at 
last  in  a  far-off  land.  No  more  need  be  said  of  her,  for  whom 
the  pity  of  the  whole  world  has  been  awakened  by  song  allied 
to  sweetest,  saddest  music.  What  of  Anne  Devlin,  Emmet's 
faithful  servant,  helping  in  his  preparations  for  insurrection, 
aiding  his  flight,  shielding  him  in  hiding,  even  when  tortured, 
scourged,  half-hanged  by  a  brutal  soldiery,  with  ste***"-shut 
lips  refusing  to  utter  a  word  to  compromise  her  "Master 
Robert"? 

What  of  the  sister  of  Henry  Joy  McCracken,  Mary,  the 
friend  and  fellow-worker  with  the  Belfast  United  Irishmen? 
An  independent,  self-reliant  business  woman,  she  earned  the 
money  which  she  gave  so  liberally  in  the  good  cause,  or  to 
help  the  poor  and  distressed,  through  the  whole  period  of  a 
long  life.  Some  still  living  have  seen  Mary  passing  along  the 
streets  of  Belfast,  an  aged  woman,  clad  in  sombre  gown,  to 


168 


THE*  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


whom  Catholic*artisans  raised  their  caps  reverently,  remember- 
mg  how.  in  '98  she  had  walked  hand  in  hand  with  her  brother  to 
the  steps  of  the  scaffold,  and  how,  in  1803,  she  had  aided 
Thomas  Russell  in  his  escape  from  the  north  after  Emmet's 
failure,  had  bribed  his  captors  after  arrest,  provided  for  his 
defence,  and  preser\^ed  for  futurity  a  record  of  his  dying 
words.  Madden's  History  of  the  United  Irishmen,  as  far  as 
It  tells  of  the  north.  Is  mainly  the  record  that  she  kept  as  a 
sacred  trust  in  letters,  papers,  long-treasured  memories  of  the 
men  who  fought  and  died  to  make  Ireland  a  united  nation. 

And  now  a  scene  in  America  comes  last  to  my  mind.  Wolfe 
Tone,  a  political  fugitive  who  has  ser^^d  Ireland  well  and 
come«througli  danger  to  safety,  is  busy  laying  the  foundations 
of  a  happy  and  prosperous  future,  with  a  beloved  wife  and 
sister  and  young  children  to  brighten  his  home.    An  estate 
near  Princeton,  New  Jersey,  has  been  all  but  bought,  possi- 
bilities *of  5  Career  in  the  new  republic  open  before  him,  when 
a  letter  conies  ''from  Belfast,  asking  him  to  return  to  the  post 
of  dan^^er,  to  undertake  a  mission  to  France  for  the  sake  of 
Ireland.   Let  his  own  pen  describe  what  happened :  "I  handed 
the  letter  to  mv  wife  anci  sister  and  desired  their  opinion.  .  .  . 
My  wife  especially,  whose  courage  and  whose  zeal  for  my 
honor  and  interest  were  not  in  the  least  abated  by  all  her  past 
sufferings,  supplicated  me  to  let  no  consideration  of  her  or  our 
children  »stand  for  a  moment  in  the  way  of  my  duty  to  our 
country,  adding  that  she  would  answer  for  our  family  during 
my  absence  and  that  the  same  Providence  which  had  so  often, 
as  it  were,  miraculously  preserved  us  would  not  desert  us  now." 

inspired  by  the  fortitude  of  this  noble  woman,  Tone  went 
forth  on  his  perilous  mission,  and  similarly  the  Young  Ireland 
leaders,  Mitchel  and  Smith  O'Brien,  were  sustained  by  the 
courage  of  their  nearest  and  dearest.  "Eva,"  the  poetess  of 
the  'Nation,  gave  her  troth-plight  to  one  who  had  prison  and 
exile  to  face  ere  he  could  claim  her  hand.  Other  names  recur 
to  me — "Speranza",  with  her  lyric  fire ;  Ellen  O'Leary,  fervent 
and  still  patient  and  wise ;  Fanny  Parnell  and  her  sister. 

And  what  of  the  women  of  Ireland  today?  Shall  they 
come  short  of  the  high  ideal  of  the  past,  falter  and  fail,  if 
devotion  and  sacrifice  are  required  of  them?   Never:  whilst 


IRISH  HEROINES 


169 


they  keep  in  memory  and  honor  the  illustrious  ones  of  whom 
I  have  written.  The  name  of  Irishwoman  today  stands  for 
steadfast  virtue,  for  hospitality,  for  simple  piety,  for  cheerful 
endurance,  and  in  a  changing  world  let  us  trust  it  is  the  will  of 
God  that  in  this  there  will  be  no  change. 

References  : 

On  Ethne,  mother  of  St.  Columcille:  The  Visions,  Miracles,  and 
Prophecies  of  St.  Columba  (Clarendon  Press  Series).  On  Ronnat: 
S.  Mac  an  Bhaird,  Life  (in  Irish)  of  Adamnan  (Letterkenny) ; 
Reeves,  St.  Adamnan's  Life  of  St.  Columba;  The  Mother  of  St. 
Adamnan,  an  old  Gaelic  text,  ed.  by  Kuno  Meyer  (Berlin).  On 
Gormlai:  Thomas  Concannon,  Gormfiath  (in  Irish;  The  Gaelic 
League,  Dublin).  On  Granuaile:  Elizabethan  State  Papers  (Record 
Office  Series)  ;  William  O'Brien,  A  Queen  of  Men.  On  Ineen-Duibh: 
O'Clery's  Life  of  Red  Hugh  (contemporary),  ed.  by  Denis  Murphy, 
S.  J.  (Dublin,  1894)  ;  Standish  O'Grady,  The  Flight  of  the  Eagle, 
or  Red  Hugh's  Captivity.  On  Rose,  wife  of  Owen  Roe  O'Neill,  see 
references  in  Father  Meehan's  The  Flight  of  the  Earls,  and  in  Sir 
John  Gilbert's  History  of  the  Confederate  War  (Dublin,  1885).  On 
the  wife  of  Wolfe  Tone,  see  Wolfe  Tone's  Autobiography,  ed.  by 
R.  Barry  O'Brien  (London,  1894).  The  American  edition  has  a  fuller 
account  of  Tone's  wife,  her  courage  and  devotion  in  educating  her 
son,  and  her  interviews  with  Napoleon,  and  life  in  America.  The 
women  of  the  United  Irish  period  are  fully  dealt  with  in  Rl.  R. 
Madden's  Lives  and  Times  of  the  United  Irishmen.  On  Mary  Mc- 
Cracken,  see  Mrs.  Milligan  Fox,  The  Annals  of  the  Irish  Harpers. 
On  the  women  of  the  Young  Ireland  period,  see  C.  Gavan  Duffy's 
Young  Ireland  (Dublin),  and  John  O'Leary's  Fenians  and  Fenian- 
ism.  On  the  women  of  Limerick,  see  Rev.  James  Dowd,  Limerick 
and  its  Sieges  (Limerick,  1890).  For  the  women  under  Cromwellian 
Plantation  persecutions  and  the  Penal  Laws,  see  Prendergast's 
Cromwellian  Settlement,  Rev.  Denis  Murphy's  Cromwell  in  Ireland, 
and  R.  R.  Madden's  History  of  the  Penal  Laws. 


IRISH  NATIONALITY 


By  Lord  Ashbourne. 


[Note. — This  chapter  was  written  by  Lord  Ashbourne  in  French, 
because  he  is  so  strong  an  Irishman  that  he  objects  to  write  in  English. 
The  translation  has  been  made  by  the  Editors.] 

T^O  those  of  us  who  are  interested  in  the  future  of  our 


1  country  there  is  at  this  very  moment  presented  a  really 
serious  problem.  The  political  struggle  of  the  last  century 
has  been  so  intense  that  many  of  our  people  have  come  to 
have  none  but  a  political  solution  in  view.  For  them  the 
whole  question  is  one  of  politics,  and  they  will  continue  to 
believe  that  Ireland  will  have  found  salvation  the  moment  we 
get  Home  Rule  or  something  like  it.  Such  an  attitude  seems 
natural  enough  when  we  remember  what  our  people  have 
suffered  in  the  past.  Nevertheless,  on  a  little  reflection,  this 
error — for  error  it  is,  and  an  enormous  one,  too — will  be 
quickly  dissipated.  In  the  first  place,  the  political  struggle  of 
today  is  only  the  continuation  of  a  conflict  which  has  lasted 
seven  hundred  years,  and  in  point  of  fact  we  have  a  right  to  be 
proud  that  after  so  many  trials  there  still  remains  to  us  any- 
thing of  our  national  inheritance.  We  find  ourselves  indeed  on 
the  battlefield  somewhat  seriously  bruised,  but  we  can  console 
ourselves  with  the  thought  that  our  opponent  is  in  equally  dole- 
ful case,  that  he  is  beginning  to  suffer  from  a  fatal  weariness, 
and  that  he  is  anxious  to  make  peace  with  us. 

In  order  to  place  the  present  political  situation  in  its  true 
light  and  to  take  into  account  its  comparatively  limited  impor- 
tance, we  must  not  lose  sight  of  the  fundamental  fact  that 
what  Home  Rule  connotes  is  rather  a  tender  of  peace  on  the 
part  of  Ireland  than  a  gift  which  England  presents  us  of  her 
own  free  will.  In  fact,  our  neighbor  across  the  Channel  has 
as  much  interest  as  ourselves,  and  perhaps  even  more,  in 
bringing  the  struggle  to  an  end.  Through  us,  England  has 
already  lost  much  prestige,  and  that  famous  British  Consti- 
tution, which  in  times  past  everyone  admired  while  trying  in 
vain  to  imitate  it,  has  lost  caste  considerably.  I  am  not  now 
speaking  of  the  danger  which  an  Ireland  discontented,  and 


IRISH  NATIONALITY 


171 


even  hostile,  and  having  nothing  to  lose,  would  constitute  for 
England  in  case  of  war.  It  is  especially  from  our  neighbor's 
point  of  view  that  we  can  cry  up  Home  Rule  or  any  other 
solution  that  will  bring  peace.  But  let  us  leave  to  Great 
Britain  the  task  of  getting  out  of  trouble  as  best  she  may. 
On  our  side,  what  shall  we  say  of  it? 

In  our  conflict  with  the  English  we  are  not  wearied ;  rather 
are  we  hardened  for  the  fray.  We  have  acquired  the  habit  of 
fighting,  and  many  of  us  can  now  scarcely  regulate  our  con- 
duct in  a  manner  suitable  to  a  state  of  peace  with  England. 
Nevertheless,  as  I  have  already  said,  we  have  not  emerged 
unscathed  from  this  war  of  the  centuries.  National  sentiment 
remains  with  us,  no  doubt,  and  our  traditions  are  not  wholly 
lost,  especially  among  the  country  people  of  the  West.  But  our 
commerce  is  almost  ruined  and  the  national  language  is  no 
longer  spoken  throughout  the  greater  part  of  the  country.  It 
is  true  that  a  continuation  of  the  hitherto  existing  state  of  war 
cannot  do  us  much  more  harm;  that  for  purposes  of  mere 
destruction  all  the  advantages  are  on  our  side;  and  that  on 
the  other  hand  we  can  begin  a  reconstruction  at  home  without 
waiting  for  a  treaty  of  peace  to  be  signed.  But  we  have  some 
things  to  do  for  which  a  home  government  would  be  useful 
to  us,  and  further,  in  the  absence  of  such  a  government,  it 
would  be  difficult  to  imagine  what  means  could  be  employed 
to  turn  the  people  away  from  their  too  exclusive  absorption 
in  Anglo-Irish  politics. 

It  is,  then,  from  a  practical  point  of  view  that  we  wish  for 
peace.  But,  we  may  lawfully  ask,  will  not  this  peace  bring 
with  it  a  special  danger,  against  which  we  ought  to  take  pre- 
cautions? As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  is  such  a  danger,  and  it 
lies  in  the  fact  that  the  people  have  been  to  so  great  an  extent 
obsessed  by  the  political  struggle  that  they  run  the  risk,  once 
their  end  is  attained,  of  collapsing  and  of  losing  interest  in 
the  national  question.  Let  us  not  forget  that  that  question  is 
to  save  our  language  and  our  civilization;  without  that,  it  is 
all  over  with  our  nationality.  Let  us  endeavor  to  turn  our 
parliament  to  account  in  order  to  work  seriously  on  the  recon- 
struction of  our  national  life,  and  it  is  certain  that  Ireland  will 
find  therein  her  salvation. 


172 


THE  GLORIES  0^^  IRELAND 


We  can,  therefore,  take  advantage  either  of  England's  pro- 
longed resistance  or  of  peace.  If  England  decides  to  con- 
tinue the  contest,  she  will  suffer  more  from  it  than  we.  Her 
empire,  her  institutions,  her  safety,  will  be  more  and  more 
impaired,  while,  as  for  us,  there  will  result  a  strong  growth 
in  patriotism  and  in  anti-British  bitterness.  What  we  have 
to  do,  right  now,  is  to  take  our  bearings  in  sucH  a  way  that, 
no  matter  what  happens  to  England,  our  own  future  shall  be 
assured.  We  can  do  it  if  we  wish  it:  the  question  is,  shall 
we  wish  it? 

Here  it  may  be  objected,  Cui  bono?  The  English  language 
is  quite  enough  for  us.    We  have  it  now  and  we  speak  it, 
sometimes,  even  better  than  the  English  people  themselves. 
We  are  proud  of  using  the  same  language  as  Sheridan,  Burke, 
and  Grattan  used.   SucH  an  opinion  has  its  modicum  of  truth, 
though  less  now  than  a  hundred  years  ago.    Formerly  there 
was  in  Ireland,  and  especially  around  Dublin,  a  little  colony 
of  Anglo-Irish.    The  members  of  this  colony  spoke  a  very 
pure  and  classic  English,  and  this  fact  is  largely  responsible 
for  the  place  which  Ireland  at  one  time  held  in  English  litera- 
ture.   But  during  the  last  century  the  remains  of  this  colony 
have  been  swamped  beneath  a  flood  of  half-Anglicized  people, 
of  Irishmen  from  the  country  districts,  who  were  formerly 
excluded,  and  who  brought  with  them  such  a  mixture  of 
expressions  and  of  phonetic  tendencies  derived  from  the 
Gaelic  that  the  language  of  Grattan,  Sheridan,  and  Burke  has 
well-nigh  gone  out  of  existence.    The  reason  of  this  is  that 
since  the  date  of  Catholic  emancipation,  most  careers  are  open 
to  ^  everybody.    The  result  has  been  that  the  newly  enfran- 
chised majority  has  ultimately  absorbed  the  minority,  and  that 
the  atmosphere  of  culture,  of  which  we  Have  just  spoken,  has 
disappeared.  We  thus  reach  an  Ireland  which,  in  a  sense,  has 
neither  culture  nor  language,  a  country  in  which  the  Gaelic 
spoken  by  a  people  humiliated  and  deeply  demoralized  by  an 
anti-Catholic  legislation,  which  was  both  savage  and  degrading, 
tended  to  coalesce  witH  an  English  already  condemned  to 
death.    It  is  from  the  moment  when  the  Catholics  had  finally 
triumphed  over  persecution  that  we  must  date  the  beginning 
of  that  political  struggle  with  which  we  are  familiar,  a  struggle 


IRISH  NATIONALITY 


173 


which  has  resulted  in  absorbing  all  the  energies  of  a  great  part 

of  the  population.  That  is  why  this  tremendous  problem  pre- 
sents itself  to  us,  at  the  very  time  when  we  should  be  justified 
in  feeling  ourselves  elated  by  triumph  because  of  our  victories 
in  parliament.  And  let  not  England  rejoice  too  much  at  our 
dilemma.  If  we  are  doomed  to  die,  she  will  die  with  us,  for 
before  disappearing  we  shall  prove  to  be  a  great  destructive 
force,  and  out  of  the  ruins  of  the  British  power  we  shall  raise 
such  a  monument  that  future  generations  will  know  what  it 
costs  to  murder  a  nation. 

But,  if  possible,  we  must  live  and  let  live.  The  elements  of 
reconstruction  are  always  at  hand.  Anglo-Irish  culture  is 
indeed  dead,  but  Gaelic  culture  is  only  seriously  sick,  and  on 
that  side  there  is  always  room  for  hope.  Sooth  to  say,  its 
sickness  consists  above  all  in  the  fact  that  the  Irish  language 
is  no  longer  spoken  in  a  great  part  of  the  country.  But,  on 
the  other  hand,  where  it  is  preserved,  that  same  language  is 
spoken  in  all  its  purity.  By  going  there  to  find  it  all  Ireland 
will  gradually  become  Gaelic. 

But,  it  will  be  objected,  what  a  loss  of  time  and  energy! 
If  it  is  a  question  of  languages,  why  not  learn  one  of  the  more 
useful  ones?  To  this  we  may  reply  that,  while  English  de- 
forms the  mouth  and  makes  it  incapable  of  pronouncing  any 
language  which  is  not  spoken  from  the  tip  of  the  lips,  Gaelic, 
on  the  contrary,  so  exercises  the  organs  of  speech  that  it 
renders  easy  the  acquisition  and  the  practice  of  most  European 
idioms.  Let  us  add,  by  way  of  example,  that  French,  which 
is  usually  difficult  for  strangers,  Is  much  more  within  the 
compass  of  Irishmen  who  speak  Irish,  no  less  because  of  cer- 
tain linguistic  customs  than  from  the  original  relationship 
between  the  two  languages. 

This  remark  brings  us  to  another  objection  which  Is  often 
lodged  against  our  movement.  It  Is  urged  that  Ireland  is 
already  Isolated  enough,  and  that  by  making  it  a  Gaelic- 
speaking  nation,  we  shall  make  that  state  of  affairs  still  worse. 
English,  say  the  objectors,  is  spoken  more  or  less  everywhere, 
while  Gaelic  will  never  be  able  to  claim  the  position  of  a 
quasi-universal  language.  To  this  line  of  reasoning  it  might 
be  answered,  for  one  thing,  that  no  one  can  tell  how  far 


174 


THE  GLORIES  0^^  IRELAND 


Gaelic  will  go,  in  case  our  movement  is  a  success,  and  that 
many  a  language  formerly  "universal"  is  today  as  dead  as  a 
door-nail.  But  we  must  look  at  the  question  from  another 
point  of  view.  John  Bull's  language  is  spread  everywhere, 
while  he  himself  retains  the  most  exclusive  insularity.  He 
travels  to  every  land  and  there  finds  his  own  language  and 
his  own  customs.  Now  it  goes  without  saying  that  from  this 
very  universalization  his  language  is  corrupted  and  becomes 
vulgarized.  The  idiom  of  Shakespeare  and  Milton  gives  place 
gradually  to  the  idiom  of  the  seaports.  Furthermore,  far  from 
isolating  us,  Gaelic  will  tend  to  put  us  in  touch  with  the  civili- 
zation of  the  West.  As  a  people  Anglicised,  and  badly  Angli- 
cised at  that,  we  share,  and  even  exaggerate,  the  faults  which 
I  have  just  described.  It  is  Anglo-Saxon  speech  which  isolates 
us,  and  we  wish  on  this  ground  to  break  with  it  and  to  hold  out 
our  hand  to  our  brothers  of  the  continent. 

But,  it  may  be  said,  what  a  pity  to  dig  yet  another  abyss 
between  Ireland  and  Great  Britain,  for  it  is  with  the  latter 
that  our  geographical  position  will  always  link  us  for  common 
defense.  For,  while  it  is  true  that  history  does  not  show  us  a 
single  case  of  an  empire  which  has  not  sooner  or  later  fallen  to 
pieces,  nevertheless,  whatever  happens,  the  two  islands  will  be 
necessarily  forced  to  co-operate  for  the  common  good.  Well,  let 
us  take  it  that  things  will  so  fall  out,  and  let  us  suppose  an  An- 
glicised Ireland  called  upon  to  face  such  a  situation.  It  would 
be  a  revolutionary  Ireland,  a  restless  Ireland,  an  Ireland  seek- 
ing vaguely  for  revenge  on  someone,  deprived  of  really  national 
character,  and,  in  a  general  way,  suspecting  England  of  re- 
sponsibility for  the  disappearance  from  our  country  of  every- 
thing that  constitutes  the  idea  of  nationality.  And  let  us 
remark  that  we  are  no  longer  living  in  those  good  old  times 
when  entire  nations  allowed  themselves  to  be  absorbed  by  their 
conquerors.  The  art  of  printing  has  changed  all  that.  Today 
a  "suppressed"  nation  is  one  that  will  sooner  or  later  have  its 
revenge.  Thus  let  us  suppose  that  we  are  destined  to  make 
political  peace  with  England  and  to  enter  of  our  own  accord 
into  a  Hiberno-Britannic  confederation.  From  our  point  of 
view,  what  would  be  the  result  of  that  arrangement?  The  re- 
sult would  be  strange.  Here  again,  as  in  the  case  of  Home 


JRISH  NATIONALITY 


175 


Rule,  it  IS  rather  we  who  offer  advantages  to  England  than  she 
who  offers  them  to  us.  Only,  in  this  latter  case,  the  result  de- 
pends on  ourselves  alone.  If  we  die,  it  will  be  because  we  have 
wished  it.  Our  language  is  not  dead ;  on  the  contrary,  although 
not  widely  spread,  it  is  in  itself  much  more  alive  than  English, 
which  as  a  literary  language  is  in  full  decay.  We  may  con- 
gratulate ourselves  that  our  idiom  is  intact.  Our  civilization 
is  old,  but  it  has  not  yet  lived  its  full  life.  If  we  wish,  the 
future  is  ours.  And  let  us  truly  believe  that  that  is  worth 
while,  for  the  race  which  has  produced  epics  like  those  of 
Ossian  and  all  that  magnificent  literature  which  has  been  pre- 
served for  us  through  the  ages,  the  race  that  gave  to  Europe 
that  great  impulse  of  missionary  activity  which  is  associated 
with  the  names  of  Columcille,  Brendan,  Columbanus,  and  Gall, 
not  to  mention  men  like  the  famous  Scotus  Erigena — ^that  race 
is  certainly  called  upon  to  play  an  important  part  in  the  modem 
world.  But — ^let  us  repeat  it — it  must  have  the  wish. 


FAMOUS  IRISH  SOCIETIES 


By  John  O'Dea, 
National  Historian,  A.  O.  H, 

IN  the  social  organization  of  no  nation  of  antiquity  were 
societies  of  greater  influence  than  in  pagan  Ireland.  During 
many  centuries  these  societies,  composed  of  the  bards,  oUamhs, 
brehons,  druids,  and  knights,  contended  for  precedence.  In 
no  country  did  the  literary  societies  display  greater  vigor  and 
exercise  a  more  beneficent  power  than  in  pagan  Ireland. 
Although  the  Hebrews  and  other  Asiatic  nations  had  societies 
organized  from  among  the  professions,  yet  in  Ireland  alone 
these  societies  seem  to  have  been  constructed  with  a  patriotic 
purpose,  and  in  Ireland  alone  they  seem  to  have  had  ceremonies 
of  initiation,  with  constitutions  and  laws.  These  societies 
existed  from  the  earliest  times  until  after  the  coming  of  St. 
Patrick.  Traces  of  them  are  visible  during  all  the  centuries 
from  the  conversion  of  Ireland  down  to  the  Anglo-Norman 
epoch,  and  it  is  apparent  that  the  clan  system  and  the  intro- 
duction of  the  feudal  system  by  the  English  failed  to  eliminate 
completely  their  influence. 

When  the  Irish  emigration  flowed  towards  the  American 
colonies  in  the  eighteenth  century,  the  social  instinct  early 
found  expression  in  societies.  One  of  the  earliest  of  these  was 
founded  in  Boston,  where,  in  1737,  twenty-six  "gentlemen 
merchants  and  others,  natives  of  Ireland  or  of  Irish  extrac- 
tion", organized  the  Charitable  Irish  Society.  In  Pennsyl- 
vania, where  the  Irish  emigration  had  been  larger  than  in  any 
other  colony,  the  Hibernian  Fire  Company  was  organized  in 
1751.  The  Friendly  Sons  of  St.  Patrick  was  founded  in  Phila- 
delphia in  1771,  and  about  that  time  societies  bearing  this 
name  were  founded  in  Boston  and  New  York,  as  convivial 
clubs  welcoming  Irish  emigrants  to  their  festive  boards.  These 
societies  were  formed  upon  the  model  of  the  Friendly  Brothers 
of  St.  Patrick,  which  had  existed  in  Dublin  and  other  Irish 
cities  a  generation  before,  and  was  well  and  favorably  known 
throughout  Ireland. 

The  Society  of  the  Friendly  Sons  of  St.  Patrick  in  Phila- 


S^AMOUS  IRISH  SOCIETIES 


177 


delphia  contained  some  of  the  most  prominent  merchants  and 
leading  citizens  of  the  city,  and  in  1780  they  subscribed 
il03,000,  or  one-third  of  the  sum  collected,  to  supply  the 
Continental  army  with  food.  Among  its  members  were  Com- 
modore Barry,  the  Father  of  the  American  Navy;  General 
Stephen  Moylan ;  General  Anthony  Wayne ;  and  the  great  mer- 
chants, Blair  McClenachan,  Thomas  Fitzsimons,  and  Robert 
Morris.  Washington,  who  was  an  honorary  member,  described 
it  "as  a  society  distinguished  for  the  firm  adherence  of  its  mem- 
bers to  the  glorious  cause  in  which  we  are  embarked."  Whether 
upon  the  field  or  upon  the  sea,  in  council  or  in  the  sacrifice  of 
their  wealth,  their  names  are  foremost  in  the  crisis  of  the  Revo- 
lution. 

The  Hibernian  Society  for  the  Relief  of  Emigrants  from 
Ireland  was  founded  in  Philadelphia  on  March  3,  1790.  Other 
Hibernian  Societies,  with  the  same  title  and  organized  for  the 
same  purpose,  were  founded  in  other  cities  along  the  Atlantic 
coast  in  the  early  years  of  the  nineteenth  century,  but  the 
Philadelphia  Hibernian  Society  was,  from  the  character  of  its 
members,  the  extent  of  its  beneficence,  and  the  length  of  its 
existence,  the  most  famous.  The  emigrants  from  Ireland 
during  the  eighteenth  century  had  pushed  on  to  the  frontier, 
or,  in  some  instances,  remained  in  the  cities  and  engaged  suc- 
cessfully in  mercantile  pursuits.  The  emigration  which  came 
after  the  Revolution  was,  however,  in  great  part  composed 
of  families  almost  without  means.  Unable  to  subsist  while 
clearing  farms  in  the  virgin  forest,  thousands  were  congested 
in  the  cities.  The  Hibernian  Society  extended  a  ready  and 
strong  hand  to  these  helpless  people,  and  not  only  aided  the 
emigrants  with  gifts  of  money,  but  also  secured  for  them  em- 
ployment, disseminated  among  them  useful  information,  and 
provided  them  with  medical  attendance.  While  the  Hibernian 
Society  was  regarded  as  the  successor  of  the  Friendly  Sons 
of  St.  Patrick,  yet  the  two  societies,  which  contained 
largely  a  membership  roll  bearing  the  same  names,  flourished, 
in  the  work  of  patriotism,  side  by  side.  The  first  officers  of 
the  Hibernian  Society  for  the  Relief  of  Emigrants  from  Ire- 
land were:  President,  Chief  Justice  Thomas  McKean;  Vice- 
President,  General  Walter  Stewart;  Secretary,  Matthew  Carey, 


178 


THE  GLORIES  OP  IRELAND 


the  historian;  Treasurer,  John  Taylor.  It  was  said  that  no 
other  society  in  America  contained  so  many  men  distinguished 
in  civil,  military,  and  official  life  as  the  Hibernian  Society.  In 
almost  every  city  where  the  Friendly  Sons  of  St.  Patrick  and 
the  Hibernian  Society  for  the  Relief  of  Emigrants  were  found, 
there  was  a  close  and  intimate  connection  between  them,  which 
ultimately  resulted  in  amalgamation. 

The  Ancient  Order  of  Hibernians  traces  its  origin  to  those 
orders  which  flourished  in  pagan  Ireland,  and  which  exercised 
so  potent  an  influence  upon  the  histor)-  of  the  Celtic  race.  The 
order  of  knighthood  was  the  first  of  these  orders  to  be  founded 
It  existed  from  the  earliest  times,  and  is  visible  in  the  annals 
of  the  nation,  until  the  Anglo-Xormans  invaded  the  land  in 
the  twelfth  centur}'.  In  pagan  Ireland  the  knightly  orders 
became  provincial  standing  armies,  and  there  are  many  glorious 
pages  describing  the  feats  of  the  Clanna  Deagha  of  Munster, 
the  Clanna  Morna  of  Connacht,  the  Feni  of  Leinster,  and  the 
Knights  of  the  Red  Branch  of  Ulster.  When  the  island  was 
Christianized,  these  knightly  orders  were  among  the  staunchest 
supporters  of  the  missionary  priests,  and  were  consecrated  to 
the  ser\-ice  of  the  church  in  the  sixth  centur}',  assuming  the 
cross  as  their  distinctive  emblem,  and  becoming  the  defenders 
of  religion. 

Among  the  names  which  are  upon  the  rolls  of  the  ancient 
orders  of  knighthood  are  those  of  most  of  the  kings,  bards, 
saints,  and  statesmen,  and  in  the  long  list  there  was  no  family 
of  greater  renown  than  that  of  Roderick  the  Great,  to  which 
belonged  Conall  Cearnach  and  Lugaidh,  who,  according  to 
MacGeoghegan  and  others,  were  the  direct  ancestors  of  the 
O'Mores  of  Leix.  In  this  family  the  ancient  splendor  of  the 
knightly  orders  was  a  tradition  which  sur\-ived  for  centuries, 
and  they  were  in  almost  continual  rebellion  against  the  Eng- 
lish, from  the  siege  of  Dublin  by  Roderick  O'Connor  until 
the  rebellion  against  Queen  Elizabeth,  led  by  Hory  Oge  O'More 
and  his  son  Owen  in  the  latter  part  of  the  sixteenth  and  the 
early  seventeenth  century.  A  nephew  of  Ror}'  Oge,  the  saga- 
cious and  statesmanlike  Ror}'  O'More,  revived  the  ancient 
orders  in  the  Catholic  Confederation  of  Kilkenny  in  1642.  A 
grandson  of  Ror>'  O'More,  Patrick  Sarsfield,  Earl  of  Lucan, 


]?AMOUS  IRISH  SOCIETIES 


179 


was  the  most  distingiiished  commander  of  Irish  armies  who 
opposed,  in  Ireland,  the  forces  of  William  of  Orange. 

There  is  no  stranger  story  in  all  history  than  the  intimate 
connection  of  the  O'More  family  with  the  annals  of  the 
Ancient  Order  of  Hibernians.  The  lineage  of  this  family 
furnishes  the  links  connecting  the  ancient  orders  of  pagan 
Ireland  through  the  centuries  with  the  Ancient  Order  in  mod- 
ern times.  Under  the  names  of  Rapparees,  Whiteboys,  De- 
fenders, Ribbonmen,  etc.,  the  Confederation  of  Kilkenny  was 
carried  on  through  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries 
until  the  nineteenth.  At  various  times  the  duties  of  these 
organizations  were  subject  to  local  conditions.  Thus  the 
Defenders  were  occupied  in  protecting  themselves  and  their 
priests  against  the  hostility  of  the  Penal  Laws,  engaging  in 
armed  conflict  with  the  Orangemen  in  the  north,  while  the 
Whiteboys  were  waging  war  against  the  atrocities  of  land- 
lordism in  the  south.  Between  these  two  organizations  there 
was  a  secret  code,  which  operated  until  they  were  combined, 
under  the  name  of  Ribbonmen,  in  the  early  nineteenth  century. 
The  contentions  of  the  Whiteboys  regarding  Irish  landlordism 
have  since  been  acknowledged  to  be  just,  and  have  been  enacted 
into  statutes.  The  Defenders  joined  with  Wolfe  Tone  in  the 
formation  of  the  United  Irishmen. 

About  1825  the  Ribbonmen  changed  their  name  to  St.  Pat- 
rick's Fraternal  Society,  and  branches  were  established  in  Eng- 
land and  Scotland  under  the  name  of  the  Hibernian  Funeral 
Society.  In  1836  a  charter  was  received  by  members  in  New 
York  City,  and  in  Schuylkill  County,  Pennsylvania.  The  head- 
quarters were  for  some  years  in  Pennsylvania,  but  in  1851  a 
charter  was  granted  to  the  New  York  Divisions  under  the 
name  of  "The  Ancient  Order  of  Hibernians."  New  York  thus 
became  the  American  headquarters.  National  conventions 
were  held  there  until  1878,  since  which  year  they  have  been 
held  in  many  other  cities  biennially.  Many  of  the  most  distin- 
guished leaders  of  the  Irish  race  in  America  have  been  mem- 
bers of  the  Order,  and  from  a  humble  beginning,  with  a  few 
emigrants  gathered  together  in  a  strange  land,  the  member- 
ship has  grown  to  nearly  200,000.  General  Thomas  Francis 
Meagher,  Colonel  Michael  Doheny,  General  Michael  Corcoran, 


(13) 


180 


GLORIES  Of  IRELAND 


and  Colonel  John  O'Mahony  were  among  the  members  in  the 
late  '50's. 

Among  the  organizations  which  have  sprung  from  the  ranks 
of  the  A.  O.  H.  were  the  powerful  Fenian  Brotherhood,  the 
Emmet  Monument  Association,  and  scores  of  smaller  associa- 
tions in  all  sections  of  the  United  States  and  Canada.  During 
the  Know  Nothing  riots,  the  Order  furnished  armed  defenders 
for  the  Catholic  churches  in  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and 
Charleston,  and  it  has  ever  been  foremost  in  preserving  its 
position  as  the  hereditary  defender  of  the  faith.  In  1894,  the 
Ladies'  Auxiliary  was  founded,  and  this  body  of  women  num- 
bered in  1914  over  63,000,  and  had  donated  great  sums  to 
charity,  education,  and  religion.  The  A.  O.  H.  had,  in  1914, 
assets  of  $2,230,000.  It  pays  annually,  for  charity,  sick  and 
death  benefits,  and  maintenance,  over  $1,000,000,  and  during 
its  existence  in  America  has  donated  nearly  $20,000,000  to 
works  of  beneficence.  One  of  the  most  celebrated  of  the 
gifts  of  the  Order  was  the  endowment  of  the  Chair  of  Celtic 
in  the  Catholic  University  of  America,  and  one  of  its  greatest 
gifts  to  charity  was  its  contribution  of  $40,000  to  the  sufferers 
from  the  San  Francisco  earthquake. 

The  Clan-na-Gael  is  a  society  organized  to  secure  the  inde- 
pendence of  Ireland  by  armed  revolution.  Its  organization  is 
secret  and  it  is  the  successor  of  the  Irish  Revolutionary 
Brotherhood,  called  in  America  the  Fenian  Brotherhood, 
which  promoted  many  daring  raids  and  risings  in  Ireland  in 
1867.  The  I.  R.  B.  was  perfected  by  James  Stephens  in  Ire- 
land, and  by  John  O'Mahony  in  America,  from  1857  to  1867. 
An  invasion  of  Canada  was  made  in  great  force  under  the 
general  direction  of  Colonel  William  R.  Roberts,  president  of 
the  Fenian  Brotherhood,  but  was  unsuccessful  owing  to  the 
attitude  of  the  United  States  Government,  vvhich  declared 
that  the  Fenians  were  violating  the  principles  of  neutrality. 
After  the  disorganization  of  the  Fenian  Brotherhood,  the  idea 
of  revolution  languished  until  revived  by  the  founding  of  the 
Clan-na-Gael  by  Jerome  J.  Collins  in  1869,  and  the  member- 
ship  during  the  twenty  years  from  1880  to  1900  included  almost 
fifty  thousand  of  the  flower  of  the  men  of  Irish  blood  in 
America.   The  principle  of  revolution  was  first  given  organized 


FAMOUS  IRISH  SOCIETIES 


181 


public  expression  in  America  through  the  formation  in  1848 
of  the  Irish  Republican  Union,  which  was  succeeded  by  the 
Emmet  Monument  Association,  these  societies  influencing  the 
creation  of  the  Sixty-Ninth  and  Seventy-Fifth  Regiments  of 
the  New  York  State  Militia,  and  the  Ninth  Massachusetts, 
which  became  so  famous  for  valor  during  the  Civil  War.  Al- 
though not  putting  forth  all  its  strength,  so  as  to  allow  full 
scope  to  the  parliamentary  efforts  to  ameliorate  the  state  of 
the  Irish  people,  the  Clan-na-Gael  is  as  vigorous  a  section  as 
ever  of  the  forces  organized  for  the  service  of  patriotism. 

The  Land  League,  founded  in  Ireland  in  1879,  was  trans- 
planted to  America  in  1880,  when  the  first  branch  was  estab- 
lished in  New  York  City  through  the  efforts  of  Patrick  Ford, 
John  Boyle  O'Reilly,  John  Devoy,  and  others.  Michael  Davitt 
soon  after  came  to  America  and  travelled  through  the  country 
founding  branches  of  the  League.  In  a  few  years  the  whole 
American  continent  was  organized,  and  in  this  organization 
Michael  Davitt  declared  that  the  members  of  the  Ancient  Order 
of  Hibernians  and  the  Clan-na-Gael  were  everywhere  foremost. 
To  the  enormous  sums  collected  by  the  League  in  this  country, 
and  to  the  magnificent  labors  of  Parnell,  Davitt,  Redmond,  Fer- 
guson, Dillon,  Kettle,  Webb,  and  others  in  Ireland,  is  due  in  a 
large  measure  the  present  improved  state  of  the  people,  result- 
ing from  the  sacrifices  made  by  those  who  supported  this  great- 
est of  leagues  devoted  to  the  amelioration  of  unbearable  eco- 
nomic conditions.  A  Ladies'  Auxiliary  to  the  Land  League 
was  estabhshed  by  the  sisters  of  Parnell,  and  was  for  some 
years  a  brilliant  vindication  of  the  power  and  justice  of  femi- 
nine participation  in  public  questions. 

The  Land  League,  the  name  of  which  was  changed  to  the 
Irish  National  League  in  the  early  *80's,  having  prepared  the 
path  to  eventual  victory,  declined  in  potency  after  the  political 
movement  was  divided  into  Parnellites  and  Anti-Parnellites  in 
1890.  The  elements  composing  these  rival  parties  were,  through 
the  initiative  of  William  O'Brien,  M.  P.,  and  in  commemora- 
tion of  the  one  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  United  Irishmen 
of  Wolfe  Tone's  day,  joined  in  1898  under  the  name  of 
the  United  Irish  League,  John  E.  Redmond  becoming  the  first 
president,  and  also  the  chairman  of  the  Parfiamentary  Party 


182 


THE^  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


which  it  had  been  instrumental  in  uniting.  This  organization 
is  now  a  Hving,  vital  force  in  the  affairs  of  Ireland  on  both 
sides  of  the  Atlantic,  Mr.  Redmond  being  still  its  head,  with 
Michael  J.  Ryan,  of  Philadelphia,  as  president  of  the  Ameri- 
can Branch. 

The  Knights  of  Columbus  were  organized  in  1881  by  Rev. 
Michael  McGivney,  in  New  Haven,  Connecticut,  and  a  charter 
was  granted  by  the  Connecticut  Legislature  on  March  29, 1882. 
At  first  the  activity  of  the  organization  was  confined  to  Con- 
necticut, but  the  time  was  ripe  for  its  mission,  and  it  soon 
spread  rapidly  throughout  New  England.  In  1896  it  began  to 
attract  the  attention  of  Catholic  young  men  in  other  parts  of 
the  nation,  and  during  the  next  few  years  its  appeal  was  made 
irresistibly  in  almost  every  State.  It  now  exists  in  all  the 
States  of  the  Union,  the  Dominion  of  Canada,  Nova  Scotia, 
Newfoundland,  Panama,  Porto  Rico,  Mexico,  Cuba,  and  the 
Philippine  Islands,  with  a  total  membership  of  328,000,  of 
whom  108,000  are  insurance  members  and  220,000  associate 
members.  Its  mortuary  reserve  fund  is  $4,500,000,  being  over 
$1,000,000  more  than  is  required  by  law.  It  is  one  of  the  most 
successful  fraternal  societies  ever  organized,  and  the  Irish- 
American  Catholics  have  given  to  it  the  full  strength  of  their 
enthusiasm  and  purpose. 

The  temperance  movement  among  Catholics  was,  from  the 
visit  of  Father  Mathew  in  1849,  largely  Irish.  The  societies 
first  formed  were  united  by  no  bond  until  1871,  when  the  Con- 
necticut societies  formed  a  State  Union.  Other  States  formed 
unions  and  a  national  convention  in  Baltimore  in  1872  created 
a  National  Union.  In  1878  there  were  90,000  priests,  laymen, 
women,  and  children  in  the  Catholic  Total  Abstinence  Benevo- 
lent Union.  In  1883  the  Union  was  introduced  into  Canada, 
and  in  1895  there  were  150,000  members  on  the  American 
continent.  From  the  C.  T.  A.  B.  U.  were  formed  the  Knights 
of  Father  Mathew,  a  total  abstinence  and  semi-military  body, 
first  instituted  in  St.  Louis  in  1872. 

The  Catholic  Knights  of  America,  with  a  membership  chiefly 
Irish-American,  were  organized  in  Memphis,  Tennessee,  in 
1877,  and  the  advantages  offered  for  insurance  soon  attracted 
20,000  members.   The  decade  of  the  '70's  was  prolific  of  Irish 


S'AMOUS  IRISH  SOCIETIES 


183 


Catholic  associations.  The  Catholic  Benevolent  Legion  was 
founded  in  1873,  shortly  followed  by  the  Catholic  Mutual  Ben- 
evolent Association,  the  Catholic  Order  of  Foresters  (which 
started  in  Massachusetts  and  spread  to  other  States),  the  Irish 
Catholic  Benevolent  Union,  and  the  Society  of  the  Holy  Name, 
which  latter,  although  tracing  its  origin  to  Lisbon  in  1432,  is 
yet  dominantly  Irish  in  America. 

In  the  large  industrial  centres  there  are  scores  of  Irish 
county  and  other  societies  composed  of  Irishmen  and  Irish- 
Americans,  organized  for  the  service  of  country  and  faith, 
beneficence  and  education,  and  all  dedicated  to  the  uplifting 
of  humanity  and  to  the  progress  of  civilization.  The  ancient 
genius  for  organization  has  not  been  lost,  the  spirit  of  brother- 
hood pulsates  strongly  in  the  Irish  heart,  and  through  its 
powerful  societies  the  race  retains  its  place  in  the  advance 
of  mankind. 

Refebences  : 

John  M.  Campbell:  History  of  the  Friendly  Sons  of  St.  Patrick 
and  Hibernian  Society ;  Maguire :  The  Irish  in  America ;  McGee : 
Irish  Settlers  in  America ;  John  O'Dea :  History  of  the  Ancient  Order 
of  Hibernians  and  Ladies'  Auxiliary  in  America;  Michael  Davitt: 
The  Fall  of  Feudalism  in  Ireland ;  Cashman :  Life  of  Michael  Davitt ; 
T.  P.  O'Connor :  The  Parnell  Movement ;  Joseph  Denieffe ;  Recollec- 
tions of  the  Irish  Revolutionary  Brotherhood;  Articles  in  the  Cath- 
olic Encyclopedia;  Report  of  the  Knights  of  Columbus,  1914;  The 
Tidings,  Los  Angeles,  7th  annual  edition. 


THE  IRISH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 


By  MiCHAEir  J.  O'Brien, 
Historiographer,  American  Irish  Historical  Society. 

STUDENTS  of  early  American  history  will  find  in  the 
Colonial  records  abundant  evidence  to  justify  the  state- 
ment of  Ramsay,  the  historian  of  South  Carolina,  when  he 
wrote  in  1789,  that: 

"The  Colonies  which  now  form  the  United  States  may  be 
considered  as  Europe  transplanted.  Ireland,  England,  Scot- 
land, France,  Germany,  Holland,  Switzerland,  Sweden,  Poland, 
and  Italy  furnished  the  original  stock  of  the  present  popula- 
tion, and  are  generally  supposed  to  have  contributed  to  it  in 
the  order  named.  For  the  last  seventy  or  eighty  years,  no 
nation  has  contributed  so  much  to  the  population  of  America 
as  Ireland." 

It  will  be  astonishing  to  one  w^ho  looks  into  the  question 
to  find  that,  in  face  of  all  the  evidence  that  abounds  in  Ameri- 
can annals,  showing  that  our  people  were  here  on  this  soil 
fighting  the  battles  of  the  colonists,  and  in  a  later  day  of  the 
infant  Republic,  thus  proving  our  claim  to  the  gratitude  of 
this  nation,  America  has  produced  men  so  ignoble  and  disin- 
genuous as  to  say  that  the  Irish  who  were  here  in  Revolutionary 
days  "were  for  the  most  part  heartily  loyal,"  that  "the  com- 
batants were  of  the  same  race  and  blood",  and  that  the  great 
uprising  became,  in  fact,  "a  contest  between  brothers" ! 

Although  many  writers  have  made  inquiries  into  this  sub- 
ject, nearly  all  have  confined  themselves  to  the  period  of  the 
Revolution.  We  are  of  "the  fighting  race",  and  in  our  enthus- 
iasm for  the  fighting  man  the  fact  seems  to  have  been  over- 
looked that  in  other  noble  fields  of  endeavor,  and  in  some 
respects  infinitely  more  important,  men  of  Irish  blood  have 
occupied  prominent  places  in  American  history,  for  which  they 
have  received  but  scant  recognition.  The  pioneers  before 
whose  hands  the  primeval  forests  fell  prostrate;  the  builders, 
by  whose  magic  touch  have  sprung  into  existence  flourishing 
towns  and  cities,  where  once  no  sounds  were  heard  save  those 
of  nature  and  her  wildest  offspring;  the  orators  who  roused 


TH^  IRISH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 


18^ 


the  colonists  into  activity  and  showed  them  the  way  to  achieve 
their  independence;  the  schoolmasters  who  imparted  to  the 
American  youth  their  first  lessons  in  intellectuality  and  patriot- 
ism ;  all  have  their  place  in  history,  and  of  these  we  can  claim 
that  Ireland  furnished  her  full  quota  to  the  American  colonies. 

It  must  now  be  accepted  as  an  indisputable  fact  that  a  very 
large  proportion  of  the  earliest  settlers  in  the  American  colonies 
were  of  Irish  blood,  for  the  Irish  have  been  coming  here  since 
the  beginning  of  the  English  colonization.  It  has  been  esti- 
mated by  competent  authorities  that  in  the  middle  of  the 
seventeenth  century  the  English-speaking  colonists  numbered 
60,000.  Sir  William  Petty,  the  English  statistician,  tells  us 
that  during  the  decade  from  1649  to  1659  the  annual  emigra- 
tion from  Ireland  to  the  western  continent  was  upwards  of 
6000,  thus  making,  in  that  space  of  time,  60,000  souls,  or  about 
one-half  of  what  the  whole  population  must  have  been  in  1659. 
And  from  1659  to  1672  there  emigrated  from  Ireland  to 
America  the  yearly  number  of  3000  (Dobbs,  on  Irish  Trade, 
Dublin,  1729).  Prendergast,  another  noted  authority,  in  the 
Cromwellian  Settlement  of  Ireland,  furnishes  ample  verifi- 
cation of  this  by  the  statistics  which  he  quotes  from  the  Eng- 
lish records.  Richard  Hakluyt,  the  chronicler  of  the  first  Vir- 
ginia expeditions,  in  his  Voyages,  Navigations,  Traffiques,  and 
Discoveries  of  the  English  Nation  (London,  1600),  shows 
that  Irishmen  came  with  Raleigh  to  Virginia  in  1587  and,  in 
fact,  the  ubiquitous  Celts  were  with  Sir  John  Hawkins  in  his 
voyage  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  twenty  years  earlier.  The 
famous  work  of  John  Camden  Hotten,  entitled  "The  Original 
Lists  of  Persons  of  Quality,  Emigrants,  Religious  Exiles,  Polit- 
ical Rebels,  Serving  Men  sold  for  a  term  of  years,"  etc.,  who 
were  brought  to  the  Virginia  plantations  between  1600  and 
1700,  as  well  as  his  "List  of  the  Livinge  and  the  Dead  in  Vir- 
ginia in  1623,"  contains  numerous  Celtic  names,  and  further 
evidence  of  these  continuous  migrations  of  the  Irish  is  con- 
tained in  "A  Booke  of  Entrie  for  Passengers  passing  beyond 
the  Seas",  in  the  year  1632.  The  Virginia  records  also  show 
that  as  early  as  1621  a  colony  of  Irish  people  sailed  from  Cork 
in  the  Flying  Harte  under  the  patronage  of  Sir  William  Newce 
and  located  at  what  is  now  Newport  News,  and  some  few  years 


186 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


later  Daniel  Gookin,  a  merchant  of  Cork,  transported  hither 
"great  multitudes  of  people  and  cattle"  from  England  and 
Ireland. 

In  the  "William  and  Mary  College  Quarterly,"  in  the  tran- 
scripts of  the  original  records  published  by  the  Virginia  His- 
torical Society,  and  in  all  County  histories  of  Virginia,  there  are 
numerous  references  to  the  Irish  "redemptioners"  who  were 
brought  to  that  colony  during  the  seventeenth  century.  But  the 
redemptioners  were  not  the  only  class  who  came,  for  the 
colonial  records  also  contain  many  references  to  Irishmen  of 
good  birth  and  education  who  received  grants  of  land  in  the 
colony  and  who,  in  turn,  induced  many  of  their  countrymen  to 
emigrate.  Planters  named  McCarty,  Lynch,  O'Neill,  Sullivan, 
Farrell,  McDonnell,  O'Brien,  and  others  denoting  an  ancient 
Irish  lineage  appear  frequently  in  the  early  records.  Much  that 
is  romantic  is  found  in  the  lives  of  these  men  and  their  descen- 
dants. Some  of  them  served  in  the  Council  chamber  and  the 
field,  their  sons  and  daughters  were  educated  to  hold  place, 
with  elegance  and  dignity,  with  the  foremost  of  the  Cavaliers, 
and  when  in  after  years  the  great  conflict  with  England  be- 
gan, Virginians  of  Irish  blood  were  among  the  first  and  the 
most  eager  to  answer  the  call.  Those  historians  who  claim 
that  the  South  was  exclusively  an  "Anglo-Saxon"  heritage 
would  be  completely  disillusioned  were  they  to  examine  the 
lists  of  Colonial  and  Revolutionary  troops  of  Celtic  name  who 
held  the  Indians  and  the  British  at  bay,  and  who  helped  in 
those  "troublous  times"  to  lay  the  foundations  of  a  great  Re- 
public. 

There  is  no  portion  of  the  Atlantic  seaboard  that  did  not 
profit  by  the  Irish  immigrations  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
We  learn  from  the  "Irish  State  Papers"  of  the  year  1595 
that  ships  were  regularly  plying  between  Ireland  and  New- 
foundland, and  so  important  was  the  trade  between  Ireland  and 
the  far-distant  fishing  banks  that  "all  English  ships  bound  out 
always  made  provisions  that  the  convoy  out  should  remain  48 
hours  in  Cork."  In  some  of  Lord  Baltimore's  accounts  of  his 
voyages  to  Newfoundland  he  refers  to  his  having  "sailed  from 
Ireland'*  and  to  his  "return  to  Ireland,"  and  so  it  is  highly 
probable  that  he  settled  Irishmen  on  his  Avalon  plantations. 


TH^  IRISH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 


187 


After  Baltimore's  departure,  Lord  Falkland  also  sent  out  a 
number  of  Irish  colonists,  and  *'at  a  later  date  they  were  so 
largely  reinforced  by  settlers  from  Ireland  that  the  Celtic  part 
of  the  population  at  this  day  is  not  far  short  of  equality  in  num- 
bers with  the  Saxon  portion" — (Hatton  and  Harvey,  History 
of  Newfoundland,  page  32).  Pedley  attributes  the  large  pro- 
portion of  Irishmen  and  the  influence  of  the  Catholics  in  New- 
foundland to  Lord  Falkland's  company,  and  Prowse,  in  his 
History  (pp.  200-201),  refers  to  *'the  large  number  of  Irish- 
men" in  that  colony  who  fled  from  Waterford  and  Cork  "dur- 
ing the  troubled  times"  which  preceded  the  Williamite  war 
(1688).  Many  of  these  in  after  years  are  known  to  have  set- 
tled in  New  England. 

But  it  was  to  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania  that  the  greatest 
flow  of  Irish  immigration  directed  its  course.  In  the  cele- 
brated "Account  of  the  Voyage  to  Maryland,"  written  in  the 
year  1634  by  Mutius  Vitellestis,  the  general  of  the  Jesuit 
Order,  it  is  related  that  when  the  Arke  and  the  Dove  arrived 
in  the  West  Indies  in  that  year,  they  found  "the  island  of 
Montserrat  inhabited  by  a  colony  of  Irishmen  who  had  been 
banished  from  Virginia  on  account  of  their  professing  the 
Catholic  faith."  It  is  known  also  that  there  were  many  fami- 
lies in  Ireland  of  substance  and  good  social  standing  who, 
at  their  own  expense,  took  venture  in  the  enterprise  of  Lord 
Baltimore  and  afterwards  in  that  of  William  Penn,  and  who 
applied  for  and  received  grants  of  land,  which,  as  the  deeds 
on  record  show,  were  afterwards  divided  into  farms  bought 
and  settled  by  O'Briens,  McCarthys,  O'Connors,  and  many 
others  of  the  ancient  Gaelic  race,  the  descendants  of  those 
heroic  men  whose  passion  for  liberty,  while  causing  their  ruin, 
inspired  and  impelled  their  sons  to  follow  westward  "the  star 
of  empire." 

After  the  first  English  colonies  in  Maryland  were  founded, 
we  find  in  all  the  proclamations  concerning  these  settlements 
by  the  proprietary  government,  that  they  were  limited  to 
"persons  of  British  or  Irish  descent."  The  religious  liberty 
established  in  Maryland  was  the  magnet  which  attracted  Irish 
Catholics  to  that  Province,  and  so  they  came  in  large  numbers 
in  search  of  peace  and  comfort  and  freedom  from  the  turmoil 


188 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


produced  by  religious  animosities  in  their  native  land.  The 
major  part  of  this  Irish  immigration  seems  to  have  come  in 
through  the  ports  of  Philadelphia  and  Charleston  and  a  portion 
through  Chesapeake  Bay,  whence  they  passed  on  to  Pennsyl- 
vania and  the  southern  colonies. 

The  "Certificates  of  Land  Grants"  in  Maryland  show  that 
it  was  customary  for  those  Irish  colonists  to  name  their  lands 
after  places  in  their  native  country,  and  I  find  that  there  is 
hardly  a  town  or  city  in  the  old  Gaelic  strongholds  in  Ireland 
that  is  not  represented  in  the  nomenclature  of  the  early 
Maryland  grants.  One  entire  section  of  the  Province,  named 
the  "County  of  Nevsr  Ireland"  by  proclamation  of  Lord  Balti- 
more in  the  year  1684,  was  occupied  wholly  by  Irish  families. 
This  section  is  now  embraced  in  Cecil  and  Harford  Counties. 
New  Ireland  County  was  divided  into  three  parts,  known  as 
New  Connaught,  New  Munster,  and  New  Leinster.  New  Con- 
naught  was  founded  by  George  Talbot  from  Roscommon,  who 
was  surveyor-general  of  the  Province;  New  Munster,  by 
Edward  O'Dwyer  from  Tipperary;  and  New  Leinster,  by 
Bryan  O'Daly  from  Wicklow,  all  of  whom  were  in  Maryland 
prior  to  1683.  Among  the  prominent  men  in  the  Province  may 
be  m.entioned  Charles  O'Carroll,  who  was  secretary  to  the 
proprietor;  Jolm  Hart  from  county  Cavan,  who  was  governor 
of  Maryland  from  1714  to  1720 ;  Phillip  Conner  from  Kerry, 
known  in  history  as  the  "Last  Commander  of  Old  Kent"; 
Daniel  Dulany  of  the  O'Delaney  family  from  Queen's  County, 
one  of  the  most  famous  lawyers  in  the  American  Colonies; 
Michael  Tawney  or  Taney,  ancestor  of  the  celebrated  judge, 
Roger  Brooke  Taney;  the  Courseys  from  Cork,  one  of  the 
oldest  families  in  the  State;  the  Kings  from  Dublin;  and 
many  others. 

The  only  place  in  the  State  bearing  a  genuine  Irish  name 
which  has  reached  any  prominence  is  Baltimore.  Not  alone 
has  the  "Monumental  City"  received  its  name  from  Ireland, 
but  the  tract  of  land  on  which  the  city  is  now  situate  was 
originally  named  (in  1695)  "Ely  O'Carroll,"  after  the  barony 
of  that  name  in  King's  and  Tipperary  counties,  the  ancient 
home  of  the  Clan  O'Carroll.  To  subdivisions  of  the  tract 
were  given  such  names  as  Dublin,  Waterford,  Tralee,  Raphoe, 


THE  IRISH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 


189 


Tramore,  Mallow,  Kinsale,  Lurgan,  Coleraine,  Tipperary,  An- 
trim, Belfast,  Derry,  Kildare,  Enniskillen,  Wexford,  Letter- 
kenny,  Lifford,  Birr,  Galway,  Limerick,  and  so  on,  all  indi- 
cating the  nationality  of  the  patentees,  as  well  as  the  places 
from  which  they  came. 

From  such  sources  is  the  evidence  available  of  the  com- 
ing of  the  Irish  to  Maryland  in  large  numbers,  and  so  it  is 
that  we  are  not  surprised  to  find  on  the  rosters  of  the  Maryland 
Revolutionary  regiments  4633  distinctive  Irish  names,  exclu- 
sive of  the  large  numbers  who  joined  the  navy  and  the  militia, 
as  well  as  those  who  were  held  to  guard  the  frontier  from 
Indian  raids,  whose  names  are  not  on  record.  However,  it  is 
not  possible  now  to  determine  the  proportion  of  the  Revo- 
lutionary soldiers  who.  were  of  Irish  birth  or  descent,  for 
where  the  nationality  is  not  stated  in  the  rosters  all  non-Irish 
names  must  be  left  out  of  the  reckoning.  The  first  census 
of  Maryland  (1790),  published  by  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment, enumerates  the  names  of  all  "Heads  of  Families"  and 
the  number  of  persons  in  each  family.  A  count  of  the  Irish 
names  shows  approximately  21,000  persons.  This  does  not  take 
into  account  the  great  number  of  people  who  could  not  be  re- 
corded under  that  head,  as  it  is  known  there  were  many  thous- 
and Irish  "redemptioners"  in  Maryland  prior  to  the  taking  of 
the  census,  and  while  no  precise  data  exist  to  indicate  the  num- 
ber of  Irish  immigrants  who  settled  in  Maryland,  I  estimate 
that  the  number  of  people  of  Irish  descent  in  the  State  in  1790 
was  not  far  short  of  40,000. 

The  Land  Records  and  Council  Journals  of  Georgia  of  the 
last  half  of  the  seventeenth  and  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth 
century  afford  like  testimony  to  the  presence  of  the  Irish,  who 
crossed  the  sea  and  colonized  the  waste  places  of  that  wild  ter- 
ritory, and  whose  descendants  in  after  years  contributed  much 
of  the  strength  of  the  patriot  forces  who  confronted  the  armed 
cohorts  of  Carleton  and  Cornwallis.  From  the  Colonial  Rec* 
ords  of  Georgia,  published  under  the  auspices  of  the  State 
Legislature,  I  have  extracted  a  long  list  of  people  of  Irish 
name  and  blood  who  received  grants  of  land  in  that  colony. 
They  came  with  Oglethorpe  as  early  as  1735  and  continued  to 


190 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


arrive  for  many  years.  It  was  an  Irishman  named  Mitchell 
who  laid  out  the  site  of  Atlanta,  the  metropolis  of  the  South ; 
an  O'Brien  founded  the  city  of  Augusta;  and  a  McCormick 
named  the  city  of  Dublin,  Georgia. 

From  the  records  of  the  Carolinas  we  obtain  similar  data, 
many  of  an  absorbingly  interesting  character,  and  the  number 
of  places  in  that  section  bearing  names  of  a  decidedly  Celtic 
flavor  is  striking  evidence  of  the  presence  of  Irish  people,  the 
line  of  whose  settlements  across  the  whole  State  of  North 
Carolina  may  be  traced  on  the  high  roads  leading  from  Penn- 
sylvania and  Virginia.  Hawk,  one  of  the  historians  of  North 
Carolina,  refers  to  the  "Irish  Romanists"  who  were  resident 
in  that  Province  as  early  as  1700,  and  Williamson  says  that 
"the  most  numerous  settlers  in  the  northwestern  part  of  the 
Province  during  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  were 
from  Ireland."  The  manuscript  records  in  the  office  of  the  Sec- 
retary of  State  refer  to  "a  ship  load  of  immigrants"  who,  in 
the  year  1761,  came  to  the  Carolinas  from  Dublin.  The  name§ 
of  the  Irish  pioneers  in  the  Carolinas  are  found  in  every  con- 
ceivable connection,  in  the  parochial  and  court  records,  in  the 
will  books,  in  the  minutes  of  the  general  Assembly,  in  the  quaint 
old  records  of  the  Land  and  Registers'  offices,  in  the  patents 
granted  by  the  colonial  Government,  and  in  sundry  other  offi- 
cial records.  In  public  affairs  they  seem  to  have  had  the  same 
adaptability  for  politics  which,  among  other  things,  has  in  later 
days  brought  their  countr>'men  into  prominence.  Florence 
O'Sullivan  from  Kerry  was  surveyor-general  of  South  Caro- 
lina in  1671.  James  Moore,  a  native  of  Ireland  and  a  descen- 
dant of  the  famous  Irish  chieftain,  Rory  O'More,  w^as  gover- 
nor of  South  Carolina  in  1700 ;  Matthew  Rowan  from  Carrick- 
fergus  was  president  of  the  North  Carolina  Council  during  the 
term  of  office  of  his  townsman,  Governor  Arthur  Dobbs  (1754 
to  1764)  ;  John  Connor  w^as  attorney-general  of  the  Province 
in  1730,  and  was  succeeded  in  turn  by  David  O'Sheall  and 
Thomas  McGuire.  Cornelius  Hartnett,  Hugh  Waddell,  and 
Terence  Sweeny,  all  Irishmen,  were  members  of  the  Court,  and 
among  the  members  of  the  provincial  assembly  I  find  such 
names  as  Murphy,  Leary,  Kearney,  McLewean,  Dunn,  Keenan, 


TH^  IRISH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 


191 


McManus,  Ryan,  Bourke,  Logan,  and  others  showing  an 
Irish  origin.  And,  in  this  connection,  we  must  not  overlook 
Thomas  Burke,  a  native  of  ''the  City  of  the  Tribes",  distin- 
guished as  lawyer,  soldier,  and  statesman,  who  became  gover- 
nor of  North  Carolina  in  1781,  as  did  his  cousin  Aedanus 
Burke,  also  from  Galway,  who  was  judge  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  South  Carolina  in  1778.  John  Rutledge,  son  of  Dr. 
John  Rutledge  from  Ireland,  was  governor  of  South  Carolina 
in  1776  and  his  brother  Edward  became  governor  of  the  State 
in  1788. 

But  there  were  Irishmen  in  the  Carolinas  long  before  the 
advent  of  these,  and  indeed  Irish  names  are  found  occasionally 
as  far  back  as  the  records  of  those  colonies  reach.  They  are 
scattered  profusely  through  the  will  books  and  records  of  deeds 
as  early  as  1676  and  down  to  the  end  of  the  century,  and  in 
a  list  of  immigrants  from  Barbados  in  the  year  1678,  quoted 
by  John  Camden  Hotten  in  the  work  already  alluded  to, 
we  find  about  120  persons  of  Irish  name  who  settled  in 
the  Carolinas  in  that  year.  In  1719,  500  persons  from 
Ireland  transported  themselves  to  Carolina  to  take  the  benefit 
of  an  Act  passed  by  the  Assembly  by  which  the  lands  of  the 
Yemmassee  Indians  were  thrown  open  to  settlers,  and  Ramsay 
(History  of  South  Carolina,  vol.  I,  page  20)  says:  "Of  all 
countries  none  has  furnished  the  Province  with  so  many  in- 
habitants as  Ireland." 

In  the  Pennsylvania  records  one  is  also  struck  with  the  very 
frequent  mention  of  Irish  names.  William  Penn  had  lived  in 
Ireland  for  several  years  and  was  acquainted  with  the  sturdy 
character  of  its  people,  and  when  he  arrived  on  board  The 
Welcome  in  1682  he  had  with  him  a  number  of  Irishmen, 
who  are  described  as  "people  of  property  and  people  of  con- 
sequence." In  1699  he  brought  over  a  brilliant  young  Irish- 
man, James  Logan  from  Lurgan,  who  for  nearly  half  a  century 
occupied  a  leading  position  in  the  Province  and  for  some  time 
was  its  governor.  But  the  first  Irish  immigration  to  Penn- 
sylvania of  any  numerical  importance  came  in  the  year  1717. 
They  settled  in  Lancaster  County.  "They  and  their  descen- 
dants," says  Rupp,  an  impartial  historian,  "have  always  been 


192 


THi:  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


justly  regarded  as  among  the  most  intelligent  people  in  the 
County  and  their  progress  will  be  found  to  be  but  little  behind 
the  boasted  efforts  of  the  Colony  of  Plymouth."  In  1727,  as 
the  records  show,  1155  Irish  people  arrived  in  Philadelphia  and 
in  1728  the  number  reached  the  high  total  of  5600.  *'It  looks 
as  if  Ireland  is  to  send  all  her  inhabitants  hither,"  wrote  Sec- 
retary Logan  to  the  provincial  proprietors  in  1729,  "for  last 
week  not  less  than  six  ships  arrived.  The  common  fear  is 
that  if  they  continue  to  come  they  will  make  themselves  pro- 
prietors of  the  Province"  (Rupp's  History  of  Dauphin 
County). 

The  continuous  stream  of  Irish  immigration  was  viewed  with 
so  much  alarm  by  the  Legislature,  that  in  1728  a  law  was 
passed  "against  these  crowds  of  Irish  papists  and  convicts  who 
are  yearly  powr'd  upon  us" — (the  "convicts"  being  the  politi- 
cal refugees  who  fled  from  the  persecutions  of  the  English 
Government!).  But  the  operations  of  this  statute  were  wholly 
nullified  by  the  captains  of  the  vessels  landing  their  passen- 
gers at  Newcastle,  Del.,  and  Burlington,  N.  J.,  and,  as  one 
instance  of  this,  I  find  in  the  Philadelphia  American  Weekly 
Mercury  of  August  14,  1729,  a  statement  to  this  efifcct: 
"It  is  reported  from  Newcastle  that  there  arrived  there  this 
last  week  about  2000  Irish  and  an  abundance  more  daily  ex- 
pected." This  expectation  was  realized,  for  according  to  "An 
Account  of  Passengers  and  Servants  landed  in  Philadelphia 
between  December  25,  1728,  and  December  25,  1729",  which 
I  find  in  the  New  England  Weekly  Journal  for  March  30, 
1730,  the  number  of  Irish  who  came  in  via  the  Delaware  river 
in  that  year  was  5655,  while  the  total  number  of  all  other 
Europeans  who  arrived  during  the  same  period  was  only  553. 
Holmes,  in  his  Annals  of  America,  corrohovdXts  this.  The  Phil- 
adelphia newspapers  down  to  the  year  1741  also  contained 
many  similar  references,  indicating  that  the  flood  of  Irish  im- 
migration was  unceasing  and  that  it  was  at  all  times  in  excess 
of  that  from  other  European  countries.  Later  issues  of  the 
Mercury  also  published  accounts  of  the  number  of  ships  from 
Ireland  which  arrived  in  the  Delaware,  and  from  theee  it  ap- 
pears tkat  from  1735  to  1738  "66  vessels  entertd  Philadelphia 
from  Ireland  and  50  cleared  thereto."   And  in  the  New  York 


TH^  IRISH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 


193 


Gazette  and  Weekly  Post-Boy  of  the  years  1750  to  1752,  I 
find  under  the  caption,  "Vessels  Registered  at  the  Philadel- 
phia Custom  House,"  a  total  of  183  ships  destined  from  or  to 
Ireland,  or  an  average  of  five  sailings  per  month  between  Irish 
ports  and  the  port  of  Philadelphia  alone.  A  careful  search 
fails  to  disclose  any  record  of  the  number  of  persons  who  came 
in  these  ships,  but,  from  the  fact  that  it  is  stated  that  all  carried 
passengers  as  well  as  merchandise  from  Irish  ports,  we  may 
safely  assume  that  the  "human  freight"  must  have  been  very 
large. 

Spencer,  in  his  History  of  the  United  States,  says:  "In 
the  years  1771  and  1772  the  number  of  emigrants  to  America 
from  Ireland  was  17,350,  almost  all  of  whom  emigrated  at  their 
own  expense.  A  great  majority  of  them  consisted  of  persons 
employed  in  the  linen  manufacture  or  farmers  possessed  of 
some  property,  which  they  converted  into  money  and  brought 
with  them.  Within  the  first  fortnight  of  August,  1773,  there 
arrived  at  Philadelphia  3500  immigrants  from  Ireland.  As 
most  of  the  emigrants,  particularly  those  from  Ireland  and 
Scotland,  were  personally  discontent  with  their  treatment  in 
Europe,  their  accession  to  the  colonial  population,  it  might 
reasonably  be  supposed,  had  no  tendency  to  diminish  or  coun- 
teract the  hostile  sentiments  toward  Britain  which  were  daily 
gathering  force  in  America."  Marmion,  in  his  Ancient  and 
Modern  History  of  the  Maritime  Ports  of  Ireland,  verifies  this" 
He  says  that  the  number  of  Irish  who  came  during  the  years 
1771,  1772,  and  1773  was  25,000.  The  bulk  of  these  came  in  by 
w^ay  of  Philadelphia  and  settled  in  Pennsylvania  and  the  Vir- 
ginias. 

The  Irish  were  arriving  in  the  Province  in  such  great  num- 
bers during  this  period  as  to  be  the  cause  of  considerable 
jealousy  on  the  part  of  other  settlers  from  continental  Eu- 
rope. They  were  a  vigorous  and  aggressive  element.  Eager 
for  that  freedom  which  was  denied  them  at  home,  large  num- 
bers of  them  went  out  on  the  frontier.  While  the  war-whoop  of 
the  savage  still  echoed  within  the  surrounding  valleys  and  his 
council  fires  blazed  upon  the  hills,  those  daring  adventurers 
penetrated  the  hitherto  pathless  wilderness  and  passed  through 
unexampled  hardships  with  heroic  endurance.    They  opened 


194 


TH^  GLORIAS  OF  IREI.AND 


up  the  roads,  bridged  the  streams,  and  cut  down  the  forests, 
turning  the  wilderness  into  a  place  fit  for  man's  abode.  With 
their  sturdy  sons,  they  constituted  the  skirmish  line  of  civiliza- 
tion, standing  as  a  bulwark  against  Indian  incursions  into  the 
more  prosperous  and  populous  settlements  between  them  and 
the  coast.  From  1740  down  to  the  period  of  the  Revolution, 
hardly  a  year  passed  without  a  fresh  infusion  of  Irish  blood 
into  the  existing  population,  and,  as  an  indication  that  they 
distributed  themselves  all  over  the  Province,  I  find,  in  every 
Town  and  County  history  of  Pennsylvania  and  in  the  land 
records  of  every  section,  Irish  names  in  the  greatest  pro- 
fusion. They  settled  in  great  numbers  chiefly  along  the  Sus- 
quehanna and  its  tributaries;  they  laid  out  many  pros- 
perous settlements  in  the  wilderness  of  western  Pennsylvania, 
and  in  these  sections  Irishmen  are  seen  occupying  some  of  the 
foremost  and  most  coveted  positions,  and  their  sons  in  after 
years  contributed  much  to  the  power  and  commercial  great- 
ness of  the  Commonwealth.  They  are  mentioned  prominently 
as  manufacturers,  merchants,  and  farmers,  and  in  the  profes- 
sions they  occupied  a  place  second  to  none  among  the  natives 
of  the  State.  In  several  sections,  they  were  numerous  enough 
to  establish  their  own  independent  settlements,  to  which  they 
gave  the  names  of  their  Irish  home  places,  several  of  which 
are  preserved  to  this  day.  It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  then 
that  General  Harry  Lee  named  the  Pennsylvania  line  of  the 
Continental  army,  "the  Line  of  Ireland"  ! 

Ireland  gave  many  eminent  men  to  the  Commonwealth, 
among  whom  may  be  mentioned :  John  Burns,  its  first  gover- 
nor after  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  who  was  born  in 
Dublin;  George  Bryan,  also  a  native  of  Dublin,  who  was  its 
governor  in  1788 ;  James  O'Hara,  one  of  the  founders  of 
Pittsburgh ;  Thomas  FitzSimmons,  a  native  of  Limerick,  mem- 
ber of  the  first  Congress  under  the  Constitution  which  began 
the  United  States  Government  and  father  of  the  policy  of 
protection  to  American  industries;  Matthew  Carey  from  Dub- 
lin, the  famous  political  economist;  and  many  others  who 
were  prominent  as  nation-builders  in  the  early  days  of  the 
"Keystone  State." 


THE  IRISH  IN  the:  UNITED  STATES 


195 


While  the  historians  usually  give  all  the  credit  to  England 
and  to  Englishmen  for  the  early  colonization  of  New  Eng- 
land;,  whose  results  have  been  attended  with  such  important 
consequences  to  America  and  the  civilized  world,  Ireland  and 
her  sons  can  also  claim  a  large  part  in  the  development  of 
this  territory,  as  is  evidenced  by  the  town,  land,  church,  and 
other  colonial  records,  and  the  names  of  the  pioneers,  as  well 
as  the  names  given  to  several  of  the  early  settlements.  That 
the  Irish  had  been  coming  to  New  England  almost  from 
the  beginning  of  the  English  colonization  is  indicated  by  an 
"Order"  entered  in  the  Massachusetts  record  under  date  of 
September  25,  1634,  granting  liberty  to  **the  Scottishe  and 
Irishe  gentlemen  who  intend  to  come  hither,  to  sitt  down  in 
any  place  upp  Merimacke  river."   This,  doubtless,  referred  to 
a  Scotch  and  Irish  company  which,  about  that  time,  had  an- 
nounced its  intention  of  founding  a  settlement  on  the  Merrimac. 
It  comprised  in  all  140  passengers,  who  embarked  in  the  Eagle 
Wing,  from  Carrickfergus  in  September,  1636,  bringing  with 
them  a  considerable  quantity  of  equipment  and  merchandise  to 
meet  the  exigencies  of  their  settlement  in  the  new  country. 
The  vessel,  however,  never  reached  its  destination  and  was 
obliged  to  return  to  Ireland  on  account  of  the  Atlantic  storms, 
and  there  is  no  record  of  a  renewal  of  the  attempt.    In  the 
Massachusetts  records  of  the  year  1640  (vol.  I,  p.  295)  is 
another  entry  relating  to  "the  persons  come  from  Ireland,"  and 
in  the  Town  Books  of  Boston  may  be  seen  references  to  Irish- 
men who  were  residents  of  the  town  in  that  year. 

From  local  histories,  which  in  many  cases  are  but  verbatim 
copies  of  the  original  entries  in  the  Town  Books,  we  get  occa- 
sional glimpses  of  the  Irish  who  were  in  the  colony  of  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  between  this  period  and  the  end  of  the  century. 
For  example,  between  1640  and  1660,  such  names  as  O'Neill, 
Sexton,  Gibbons,  Lynch,  Keeney,  Kelly,  and  Hogan  appear 
on  the  Town  records  of  Hartford,  and  one  of  the  first  school- 
masters who  taught  the  children  of  the  Puritans  in  New  Haven 
was  an  Irishman  named  William  Collins,  who,  in  the  year  1640, 
came  there  with  a  number  of  Irish  refugees  from  Barbados 
Island.  An  Irishman  named  Joseph  Collins  with  his  wife  and 
family  came  to  Lynn,  Mass.,  in  1635.  Richard  Duffy  and 
(14) 


196 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


Matthias  Curran  were  at  Ipswich  in  1633.  John  Kelly  came 
to  Newbury  in  1635  with  the  first  English  settlers  of  the  town. 
David  O'Killia  (or  O'Kelly)  was  a  resident  of  Old  Yarmouth 
in  1657,  and  I  find  on  various  records  of  that  section  a  great 
number  of  people  named  Kelley,  who  probably  were  descended 
from  David  O'Killia.  Peter  O'Kelly  and  his  family  are  men- 
tioned as  of  Dorchester  in  1696.  At  Springfield  in  1656  there 
were  families  named  Riley  and  O'Dea;  and  Richard  Burke, 
said  to  be  of  the  Mayo  family  of  that  name,  is  mentioned  prom- 
inently in  Middlesex  County  as  early  as  1670.  The  first  legal 
instrument  of  record  in  Hampden  County  was  a  deed  of  con- 
veyance in  the  year  1683  to  one  Patrick  Riley  of  lands  in 
Chicopee.  With  a  number  of  his  countrymen,  Riley  located  in 
this  vicinity  and  gave  the  name  of  "Ireland  Parish"  to  their 
settlement.  John  Molooney  and  Daniel  MacGuinnes  were  at 
Woburn  in  1676,  and  Michael  Bacon,  "an  Irishman",  of  Wo- 
burn,  fought  in  King  Philip's  war  in  1675.  John  Joyce  was  at 
Lynn  in  1637,  and  I  find  the  names  of  Willyam  Heally,  William 
Reyle,  William  Barrett,  and  Roger  Burke  signed  to  a  petition 
to  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  on  August  17,  1664. 
Such  names  as  Maccarty,  Gleason,  Coggan,  Lawler,  Kelly, 
Hurley,  MackQuade,  and  McCleary  also  appear  on  the  Cam- 
bridge Church  records  down  to  1690.  These  are  but  desultory 
instances  of  the  first  comers  among  the  Irish  to  Massachusetts, 
selected  from  a  great  mass  of  similar  data. 

In  the  early  history  of  every  town  in  Massachusetts,  with- 
out exception,  I  find  mention  of  Irish  people,  and  while  the 
majority  came  originally  as  "poor  redemptioners",  yet,  in 
course  of  time  and  despite  Puritanical  prejudices,  not  a  few 
of  them  rose  to  positions  of  worth  and  independence.  Perhaps 
the  most  noted  of  these  was  Matthew  Lyon  of  Vermont,  known 
as  "the  Hampden  of  Congress,"  who,  on  his  arrival  in  New 
York  in  1765,  was  sold  as  a  "redemptioner"  to  pay  his  passage- 
money.  This  distinguished  American  was  a  native  of  county 
Wicklow.  Other  notable  examples  of  Irish  redemptioners  who 
attained  eminence  in  America  were  George  Taylor,  a  native  of 
Dublin,  one  of  Pennsylvania's  signers  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence;  Charles  Thompson,  a  native  of  county  Tyrone, 
"the  perennial  Secretary  of  the  Continental  Congress",  and 


THE  IRISH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 


197 


William  Killen,  who  became  chief  justice  and  chancellor  of 
Delaware.  Some  of  the  descendants  of  the  Irish  redemptioners 
in  Massachusetts  are  found  among  the  prominent  New  Eng- 
landers  of  the  past  hundred  years.  The  Puritans  of  Massa- 
chusetts extended  no  welcoming  hand  to  the  Irish  who  had 
the  temerity  to  come  among  them,  yet,  as  an  historical  writer 
has  truly  said,  "by  one  of  those  strange  transformations  which 
time  occasionally  works,  it  has  come  to  pass  that  Massachu- 
setts today  contains  more  people  of  Irish,  blood  in  proportion 
to  the  total  population  than  any  other  State  in  the  Union." 

So  great  and  so  continuous  was  Irish  immigration  to  Massa- 
chusetts during  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  that  on 
Saint  Patrick's  Day  in  the  year  1737  a  number  of  merchants, 
who  described  themselves  as  "of  the  Irish  Nation  residing  in 
Boston,"  formed  the  Charitable  Irish  Society,  an  organization 
which  exists  even  to  the  present  day.  It  was  provided  that  the 
officers  should  be  "natives  of  Ireland  or  of  Irish  extraction," 
and  they  announced  that  the  Society  was  organized  "in  an 
affectionate  and  Compassionate  concern  for  their  countrymen 
in  these  Parts  who  may  be  reduced  by  Sickness,  Shipwrack, 
Old  Age,  and  other  Infirmities  and  unforeseen  Accidents."  I 
have  copied  from  the  Town  Books,  as  reproduced  by  the  City 
of  Boston,  1600  Irish  names  of  persons  who  were  married  or 
had  declared  their  intentions  of  marriage  in  Boston  be- 
tween the  years  1710  and  1790,  exclusive  of  956  other  Irish 
names  which  appear  on  the  minutes  between  1720  and  1775. 

In  1718,  one  of  the  largest  single  colonies  of  Irish  arrived  in 
Boston.  It  consisted  of  one  hundred  families,  who  settled  at 
different  places  in  Massachusetts.  One  contingent,  headed  by 
Edward  Fitzgerald,  located  at  Worcester  and  another  at  Pal- 
mer under  the  leadership  of  Robert  Farrell,  while  a  number 
went  to  the  already  established  settlement  at  Londonderry, 
N.  H.  About  the  same  time  a  colony  of  fishermen  from  the 
west  coast  of  Ireland  settled  on  the  Cape  Cod  peninsula,  and  I 
find  a  number  of  them  recorded  on  the  marriage  registers  of 
the  towns  in  this  vicinity  between  1719  and  1743.  In  1720,  a 
number  of  families  from  county  Tyrone  came  to  Shrewsbury, 
and  eight  years  later  another  large  contingent  came  to  Leicester 
County  from  the  same  neighborhood,  who  gave  the  name  of 


198 


THE  GLORIES  Of  IRELAND 


Dublin  to  the  section  where  they  located.  The  annals  of  Leices- 
ter County  are  rich  in  Irish  names.  On  the  Town  Books  of 
various  places  in  this  vicinity  and  on  the  rosters  of  the  troops 
enrolled  for  the  Indian  war,  Irishmen  are  recorded,  and  we 
learn  from  the  records  that  not  a  few  of  them  were  important 
and  useful  men,  active  in  the  development  of  the  settlements, 
and  often  chosen  as  selectmen  or  representatives.  On  the 
minutes  of  the  meetings  of  the  selectmen  of  Pelham,  Spencer, 
Sutton,  Charlestown,  Canton,  Scituate,  Stoughton,  Salem, 
Amesbury,  Stoneham,  and  other  Massachusetts  towns,  Irish 
names  are  recorded  many  years  before  the  Revolution.  In  local 
histories  these  people  are  usually  called  "Scotch-Irish,"  a  racial 
misnomer  that  has  been  very  much  overworked  by  a  certain 
class  of  historical  writers  who  seem  to  be  unable  to  understand 
that  a  non-Catholic  native  of  Ireland  can  be  an  Irishman.  In  an 
exhaustive  study  of  American  history,  I  cannot  find  any  other 
race  where  such  a  distinction  is  drawn  as  in  the  case  of  the 
non-Catholic,  or  so-called  ''Scotch,"  Irish.  In  many  instances, 
this  hybrid  racial  designation  obviously  springs  from  preju- 
dice and  a  desire  to  withhold  from  Ireland  any  credit  that 
may  belong  to  her,  although,  in  some  cases,  the  writers  are 
genuinely  mistaken  in  their  belief  that  the  Scotch  as  a  race  are 
the  antithesis  of  the  Irish  and  that  whatever  commendable 
qualities  the  non-Catholic  Irish  are  possessed  of  naturally 
spring  from  the  Scotch. 

The  first  recorded  Irish  settlement  in  Maine  was  made  by 
families  named  Kelly  and  Haley  from  Galway,  who  located  on 
the  Isles  of  Shoals  about  the  year  1653.  In  1692,  Roger  Kelly 
was  a  representative  from  the  Isles  to  the  General  Court  of 
Massachusetts,  and  is  described  in  local  annals  as  "King  of  the 
Isles."  The  large  number  of  islands,  bays,  and  promontories 
on  the  Maine  coast  bearing  distinctive  Celtic  names  attests  the 
presence  and  influence  of  Irish  people  in  this  section  in  colonial 
times.  In  1720,  Robert  Temple  from  Cork  brought  to  Maine 
five  shiploads  of  people,  mostly  from  the  province  of  Munster. 
They  landed  at  the  junction  of  the  Kennebec  and  Eastern 
rivers,  where  they  established  the  town  of  Cork,  which,  how- 
ever, after  a  precarious  existence  of  only  six  years,  was  entirely 


THE  IRISH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 


199 


destroyed  by  the  Indians.  For  nearly  a  century  the  place  was 
familiarly  known  to  the  residents  of  the  locality  as  'Ireland." 
The  records  of  York,  Lincoln,  and  Cumberland  counties  con- 
tain references  to  large  numbers  of  Irish  people  who  settled  in 
those  localities  during  the  early  years  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury. The  Town  Books  of  Georgetown,  Kittery,  and  Kenne- 
bunkport,  of  the  period  1740  to  1775,  are  especially  rich  in 
Irish  names,  and  in  the  Saco  Valley  numerous  settlements 
were  made  by  Irish  immigrants,  not  a  few  of  whom  are  re- 
ferred to  by  local  historians  as  *'men  of  wealth  and  social 
standing."  In  the  marriage  and  other  records  of  Limerick, 
Me.,  as  published  by  the  Maine  Historical  and  Genealogical 
Recorder,  in  the  marriage  registers  of  the  First  Congregational 
Church  of  Scarborough,  and  in  other  similarly  unquestionable 
records,  I  find  a  surprisingly  large  number  of  Irish  names  at 
various  periods  during  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centu- 
ries. In  fact,  there  is  not  one  town  in  the  Province  that  did  not 
have  its  quota  of  Irish  people,  who  came  either  direct  from 
Ireland  or  migrated  from  other  sections  of  New  England. 

The  records  of  New  Hampshire  and  Rhode  Island  are  also 
a  fruitful  source  of  information  on  this  subject,  and  the  Pro- 
vincial papers  indicate  an  almost  unbroken  tide  of  Irish  immi- 
gration to  this  section,  beginning  as  early  as  the  year  16-iO. 
One  of  the  most  noted  of  Exeter's  pioneer  settlers  was  an 
Irishman  named  Darby  Field,  who  came  to  that  place  in  1631 
and  who  has  been  credited  by  Governor  Winthrop  as  "the 
first  European  who  witnessed  the  White  Mountains."  He  is 
also  recorded  as  "an  Irish  soldier  for  discovery,"  and  I  find 
his  name  in  the  annals  of  Exeter  as  one  of  the  grantees  of  an 
Indian  deed  dated  April  3,  1638,  as  well  as  several  other  Irish 
names  down  to  the  year  1664.  In  examining  the  town  regis- 
ters, gazeteers,  and  genealogies,  as  well  as  the  local  histories 
of  New  Hampshire,  in  which  are  embodied  copies  of  the  origi- 
nal entries  made  by  the  Town  Clerks,  I  find  numerous  refer- 
ences to  the  Irish  pioneers,  and  in  many  instances  they  are 
written  down,  among  others,  as  "the  first  settlers."  Some  are 
mentioned  as  selectmen,  town  clerks,  representatives,  or 
colonial  soldiers,  and  it  is  indeed  remarkable  that  there  is 


;^00  THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


not  one  of  these  authorities  that  I  have  examined,  out  of  more 
than  two  hundred,  that  does  not  contain  Irish  names.  From 
these  Irish  pioneers  sprang  many  men  who  attained  prominence 
in  New  Hampshire,  in  the  legislature,  the  professions,  the  mili- 
tary, the  arts  and  crafts,  and  in  all  departments  of  civil  life, 
down  to  the  present  time.  In  the  marriage  registers  of  Ports- 
mouth, Boscawen,  New  Boston,  Antrim,  Londonderry,  and 
other  New  Hampshire  towns,  are  recorded,  in  some  cases  as 
early  as  1716,  names  of  Irish  persons,  with  the  places  of  their 
nativity,  indicating  that  they  came  from  all  parts  of  Ireland. 
At  Hampton,  T  find  Humphrey  Sullivan  teaching  school  in 
1714,  while  the  name  of  John  Sullivan  from  Limerick,  school- 
master at  Dover  and  at  Benvlclc,  Me.,  for  upwards  of  fifty 
years,  is  one  ol  the  most  Honored  in  early  New  Hampshire 
history. 

This  John  Sullivan  was  surely  one  of  the  grandest  charac- 
ters in  the  Colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  and  the  record  of 
his  descendants  ser^-es  as  an  all-sufficient  reply  to  the  anti- 
Irish  prejudices  of  some  American  historians.  He  was  the 
father  of  a  governor  of  New  Hampshire  and  of  a  governor 
of  Massachusetts ;  of  an  attorney-general  of  New  Hampshire 
and  of  an  attorney-general  of  Massachusetts ;  of  New  Hamp- 
shire's only  major-general  in  the  Continental  army;  of  the 
first  judge  appointed  by  Washington  in  New  Hampshire;  and 
of  four  sons  who  were  officers  in  the  Continental  army.  He 
was  grandfather  of  an  attorney-general  of  New  Hampshire, 
of  a  governor  of  IMaine,  and  of  a  United  States  Senator  from 
New  Hampshire.  He  was  great-grandfather  of  an  attorney- 
general  of  New  Hampshire,  and  great-great-grandfather  of 
an  officer  in  the  Thirteenth  New  Hampshire  regiment  in  the 
Civil  War. 

In  Rhode  Island,  Irish  people  are  on  record  as  far  back 
as  1640,  and  for  many  years  after  that  date  they  continued  to 
come.  Edward  Larkin  was  an  esteemed  citizen  of  Newport 
in  1655.  Charles  McCarthy  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
town  of  East  Greenwich  in  1677,  while  in  this  ^vicinity  as 
early  as  1680  are  found  such  names  as  Casey,  Higgins,  Magen- 
m's.  Kellej,  Murphy,  -Reylie,  Maloney,  Healy,  Delaney,  Walsh. 


THE  IRISH  IN  THK  UNITE:D  STATI-S 


201 


and  others  of  Irish  origin.  On  the  rosters  of  the  Colonial 
militia  who  fought  in  King  Philip's  war  (1675)  are  found 
the  names  of  110  soldiers  of  Irish  birth  or  descent,  some  of 
whom,  for  their  services  at  the  battle  of  Narragansett,  re- 
ceived grants  of  land  in  New  Hampshire  and  Massachusetts. 
The  New  England  Historical  and  Genealogical  Register  for 
1848  contains  some  remarkable  testimony  of  the  sympathy  of 
the  people  of  Ireland  for  the  sufferers  in  this  cruel  war,  and 
the  "Irish  Donation,"  sent  out  from  Dublin  in  the  year  1676, 
will  always  stand  in  history  to  Ireland's  credit  and  as  an 
instance  of  her  intimate  familiarity  with  American  affairs,  one 
hundred  years  prior  to  that  Revolution  which  emancipated  the 
people  of  this  land  from  the  same  tyranny  under  which  she 
herself  has  groaned.  And  ytt,  what  a  cruel  travesty  on  history 
it  reads  like  now,  when  we  scan  the  official  records  of  the 
New  England  colonies  and  find  that  the  Irish  were  often 
called  "convicts",  and  it  was  thought  that  measures  should 
be  taken  to  prevent  their  landing  on  the  soil  where  they  and 
their  sons  afterwards  shed  their  blood  in  the  cause  of  their 
fellow  colonists !  In  the  minutes  of  the  provincial  Assemblies 
and  in  the  reports  rendered  to  the  General  Court,  as  well  as  in 
other  official  documents  of  the  period,  are  found  expressions  of 
the  sentiment  which  prevailed  against  the  natives  of  the  "Is- 
land of  Sorrows."  Only  twenty  years  before  the  outbreak  of 
King  Philip's  war,  the  government  of  England  was  asked  to 
provide  a  law  "to  prevent  the  importation  of  Irish  Papists 
and  convicts  that  are  yearly  pow'rd  upon  us  and  to  make  pro- 
vision against  the  growth  of  this  pernicious  evil."  And  the 
colonial  Courts  themselves,  on  account  of  what  they  called 
"the  cruel  and  malignant  spirit  that  has  from  time  to  time  been 
manifest  in  the  Irish  nation  against  the  English  nation,"  pro- 
hibited "the  bringing  over  of  any  Irish  men,  women,  or  chil- 
dren into  this  jurisdiction  on  the  penalty  of  fifty  pounds  sterling 
to  each  inhabitant  who  shall  buy  of  any  merchant,  shipmaster, 
or  other  agent  any  such  person  or  persons  so  transported  by 
them."  This  order  was  promulgated  by  the  General  Court  of 
Massachusetts  In  October,  1654,  and  is  given  in  full  in  the 
American  Historical  Review  for  October,  1896. 
With  the  "convicts"  and  the  "redemptioners"  came  the  Irish 


202 


THE  GLORIES  OE  IRELAND 


schoolmaster,  the  man  then  most  needed  in  America.  And 
the  fighting  man,  he  too  was  to  the  fore,  for  when  the  colo- 
nies in  after  years  called  for  volunteers  to  resist  the  tyranny  of 
the  British,  the  descendants  of  the  Irish  "convicts"  were  among 
the  first  and  the  most  eager  to  answer  the  call. 

Although  it  does  not  appear  that  Irish  immigrants  settled 
in  the  Province  of  New  York  in  such  large  numbers  as  in 
other  sections,  yet,  as  far  back  as  the  third  quarter  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  Irish  names  are  found  on  the  records  of  the 
Colony.  O'Callaghan,  the  eminent  archivist  and  historian,  re- 
fers to  "Dr.  William  Hayes,  formerly  of  Barry's  Court,  Ire- 
land," as  one  of  New  York's  physicians  in  the  year  1647,  and 
from  the  same  authority  we  learn  that  there  were  "settlers  and 
Indian  fighters  in  New  Netherland"  named  Barrett,  Fitzgerald, 
Dowdall,  Collins,  and  Quinn  in  1657.  In  records  relating  to  the 
war  with  the  Esopus  Indians  (1663),  and  in  fact  as  early  as 
1658,  frequent  references  are  made  to  "Thomas  the  Irishman", 
whose  name  was  Thomas  Lewis,  a  refugee  from  Ireland  to 
Holland  after  the  Cromwellian  war.  Lewis  is  on  record  in 
1683  as  one  of  the  wealthiest  merchants  of  New  York  and  a 
large  owner  of  real  estate  in  the  present  downtown  portion 
of  the  city.  Such  names  as  Patrick  Hayes,  John  Daly,  John 
Quigly,  and  Dennis  McKarty  appear  among  its  business  men 
between  1666  and  1672,  and  in  a  "Census  of  the  City  of  New 
York  of  the  year  1703"  we  find  people  named  Flynn,  Walsh, 
Dooley,  Gillen,  Carroll,  Kenne,  Gurney,  Hart,  Mooney,  Moran, 
Lynch,  Kearney,  and  others,  all  "Freemen  of  the  City  of  New 
York."  In  the  "Poll  List"  of  the  city  from  1741  to  1761,  more 
than  one  hundred  such  names  appear,  while  among  the  adver- 
tisers in  the  New  York  newspapers  all  through  the  eighteenth 
century  I  find  a  large  number  of  characteristic  Irish  names. 

One  would  scarcely  expect  to  find  an  Irishman  in  the  old 
Dutch  settlement  of  Beverwyck  as  early  as  1645.  Yet  such  is 
the  case,  for  "Jan  Andriessen,  de  lersman  van  Dublingh" — 
(John  Anderson,  the  Irishman  from  Dublin) — is  mentioned  as 
the  owner  of  considerable  landed  property  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Albany  and  Catskill.  and  in  every  mention  of  this  ancient 
pioneer  he  is  referred  to  as  "the  Irishman."   At  Albany,  be- 


the;  IRISH  IN  the:  united  states 


203 


tween  1666  and  1690,  we  find  people  named  Connell,  Daly, 
Larkin,  Shaw,'Hogan,  and  Finn,  all  Irishmen,  and  in  Jonathan 
Pearson's  "Genealogies  of  the  First  Settlers  of  the  Ancient 
County  of  Albany"  and-in  his  "Genealogies  of  the  First  Settlers 
of  the  Patent  and  City  of  Schenectady",  I  find  135  distinctive 
Irish  names.  These  were  mostly  merchants,  farmers,  artisans, 
millers,  and  backwoodsmen,  the  pioneers,  who,  with  their  Dutch 
neighbors,  blazed  the  trail  of  civilization  through  that  section, 
rolled  back  the  savage  redman,  and  marked  along  the  banks  of 
the  Hudson  and  Mohawk  rivers  the  sites  of  future  towns  and 
cities.  In  the  rate  lists  of  Long  Island  between  1638  and 
1675»  I  find  Kelly,  Dalton,  Whelan,  Condon,  Barry,  Powers, 
Quin,  Kane,  Sweeney,  Murphy,  Reilly,  as  well  as  Norman- 
Irish  and  Anglo-Irish  names  that  are  common  to  Irish  nomen- 
clature. Hugh  O'Neale  was  a  prominent  resident  of  Newtown, 
L.  L,  m  1655.  In  a  "Report  to  the  Lord  President,"  dated 
September  6,  1687,  Governor  Dongan  recommended  "that 
natives  of  Ireland  be  sent  to  colonize  here  where  they  may 
live  and  be  very  happy."  Numbers  of  them  evidently  ac- 
cepted the  invitation,  for  many  Irishmen  are  mentioned  in  the 
public  documents  of  the  Province  during  the  succeeding  twenty 
years. 

That  the  Irish  continued  to  settle  in  the  Province  all  through 
the  eighteenth  century  may  be  seen  from  the  announcements 
in  the  New  York  newspapers  of  the  time  and  other  authentic 
records.  The  most  important  of  these,  in  point  of  numbers  and 
character  of  the  immigrants,  were  those  made  in  Orange 
County  in  1729  under  the  leadership  of  James  Clinton  from 
Longford,  and  at  Cherry  Valley,  in  Otsego  County,  twelve 
years  later.  On  fhe  Orange  County  assessment  and  Revo- 
lutionary rolls,  and  down  to  the  year  1800,  there  is  a  very  large 
number  of  Irisli  names,  and  in  some  sections  they  constituted 
nearly  the  entire  population.  In  the  northwestern  part  of 
New  York,  Irishmen  are  also  found  about  the  time  of  the 
Franco-English  war.  They  were  not  only  among  those  settlers 
who  followed  the  peaceful  pursuits  of  tilling  and  building,  but 
they  were  "the  men  behind  the  guns"  who  held  tlie  marauding 
Indians  in  check  and  repelled  the  advances  of  the  French 
through  that  territory.    In  this  war,  Irish  soldiers  fought  on 


204 


THE  GLORIES  OP  IFXLAXD 


both  sides,  and  in  the  ''Jo^^^^^^  Marquis  of  Montcalm" 

may  be  seen  references  to  the  EngUsh  garrison  at  Oswego, 
which,  in  August,  1756,  surrendered  to  that  same  Irish  Brigade 
by  which  they  had  been  defeated  eleven  years  before  on  the 
battlefield  of  Fontenoy.  In  the  "Manuscripts  of  Sir  William 
Johnson",  are  also  found  some  interesting  items  indicating  that 
Irishmen  were  active  participants  in  the  frontier  fighting  about 
that  time,  and  in  one  report  to  him,  dated  May  28,  1756,  from 
the  commandant  of  an  English  regiment,  reference  is  made  to 
"the  great  mmibers  of  Irish  Papists  among  the  Delaware  and 
Susquehanna  Indians  who  have  done  a  world  of  prejudice  to 
English  interests." 

The  early  records,  with  hardly  an  exception,  contain 
Irish  names,  showing  that  the  "Exiles  from  Erin"  came  to  the 
Province  of  Xew  York  in  considerable  numbers  during  the 
eighteenth  century.  The  baptismal  and  marriage  records  of 
the  Dutch  Reformed  and  Protestant  churches  of  New  York 
City;  of  the  Dutch  churches  at  Kingston,  Albany,  Schenectady, 
and  other  towns ;  the  muster  rolls  of  the  troops  enrolled  for  the 
French,  Indian,  and  Revolutionary  wars ;  the  Land  Grants  and 
other  provincial  records  at  Albany ;  the  newspapers  ;  the  Town, 
County,  and  family  histories,  and  other  early  chronicles,  sup- 
plemented by  authoritative  publications  such  as  those  of  the 
New  York  Historical  and  Genealogical  and  Biographical  Socie- 
ties— these  are  the  depositories  of  the  evidence  that  thousands 
of  Irish  people  settled  in  the  Province  of  New  York  and  con- 
stituted no  inconsiderable  'proportion  of  the  total  population. 

The  majority  of  the  Irish  residents  of  New  York  whose  mar- 
riages are  recorded  in  the  Dutch  Reformed  church  were, 
doubtless,  of  the  Catholic  faith,  but,  as  it  was  necessary  to 
comply  with  the  established  law.  and  also  so  that  their  off- 
spring might  be  legitimate,  they  could  be  bound  in  wedlock 
only  by  a  recognized  Minister  of  the  Gospel.  As  there  was  no 
Catholic  church  in  New  York  prior  to  17S6.  the  ceremony  had 
to  be  performed  in  the  Dutch  Reformed  or  Protestant  church. 
Many  of  these  Catholics  were  refugees  from  Ireland  on  ac- 
count of  the  religious  persecutions.  Like  the  people  of  Ireland 
in  all  ages,  they  were  devoted  to  their  relierion.  and  while,  no 
doubt,  they  eschewed  for  a  while  association  with  the  estab- 


THl^  IRISH  IN  THK  UNITED  STATi^S 


205 


lished  churches,  yet,  as  time  went  on,  they  and  their  children 
were  gradually  drawn  into  religious  intercourse  with  the  other 
sects,  until  eventually  they  became  regular  communicants  of 
those  churches.  The  variations  which  from  time  to  time  were 
wrought  in  their  names  brought  them  further  and  further 
away  from  what  they  had  been ;  in  their  new  surroundings,  both 
social  and  religious,  they  themselves  changed,  so  that  their  chil- 
dren, who  in  many  cases  married  into  the  neighboring  Dutch 
and  French  families,  became  as  wholly  un-Irish  in  manner 
and  sentiment  as  if  they  had  sprung  from  an  entirely  different 
race.  That  fact,  however,  does  not  admit  of  their  being  now 
included  in  the  category  "Anglo-Saxon." 

In  a  work  entitled  "Names  of  Persons  for  whom  Marriage 
Licenses  were  issued  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Province  of 
New  York,  previous  to  1784,"  compiled  by  Gideon  J.  Tucker 
(when  Secretary  of  State),  and  taken  from  the  early  records  of 
the  office  of  the  Secretary  of  State  at  Albany,  we  find  ample 
corroboration  of  the  church  records.  Page  after  page  of  this 
book  looks  more  like  some  record  of  the  Province  of  Munster 
than  of  the  Province  of  New  York.  It  is  a  quarto  volume  print- 
ed in  small  type  in  double  columns,  and  there  are  eleven  pages 
wholly  devoted  to  persons  whose  names  commence  with  "Mac" 
and  three  to  the  "O's."  Nearly  every  name  common  to  Ireland 
is  here  represented. 

New  York,  as  a  Province  and  as  a  State,  is  much  indebted  to 
Irish  genius.  Ireland  gave  the  Province  its  most  noted  gover- 
nor in  the  person  of  Thomas  Dongan  from  Co.  Kildare,  and  in 
later  years  Sir  William  Johnson  from  Co.  Meath,  governor 
of  the  Indians  from  New  York  to  the  Mississippi.  It  gave  the 
State  its  first  governor,  George  Clinton,  son  of  an  immigrant 
from  Co.  Longford,  and  to  the  city  its  first  mayor  after  the 
Revolution,  James  Duane,  son  of  Anthony  Duane  from  Co. 
Galway.  Fulton,  an  Irishman's  son,  gave  America  priority  in 
the  "conquest  of  the  seas."  Christopher  Colles,  a  native  of 
Cork,  was  the  originator  of  the  grand  scheme  which  united  the 
waters  of  the  Atlantic  and  the  Lakes — one  of  the  greatest 
works  of  internal  improvement  ever  effected  in  the  United 
States — while  the  gigantic  project  was  carried  to  a  successful 


206 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


end  through  the  influence  and  direction  of  Governor  DeWitt 
Clinton,  the  grandson  of 'an  Irishman. 

Many  of  the  pioneer  settlers  of  New  Jersey  were  Irish. 
As  early  as  1683' **a  colony  from  Tipperary  in  Ireland"  located 
at  Cohansey  in  Salem  County,  and  in  the  same  year  a  number 
of  settlers,  also  described  as  "from  Tipperary,  Ireland,"  located 
in  Monmouth  County.  In  the  County  records  of  New  Jersey, 
Irish  names  are  met  with  frequently  between  the  years  1676 
and  1698.  Several  of  the  local  historians  testify  to  the  presence 
and  influence  of  Irishmen  in  the  early  days  of  the  colony,  and 
in  the  voluminous  "New  Jersey  Archives"  may  be  found  ref- 
erences to  the  large  numbers  of  Irish  "redemptioners,"  some 
of  whom,  after  their  terms  of  ser^'ice  had  expired,  received 
grants  of  land  and  in  time  became  prosperous  farmers  and 
merchants.  Perhaps  the  most  noted  Irishman  in  New  Jersey 
in  colonial  days  was  Michael  Kearney,  a  native  ofiCork  and 
ancestor  of  Generali  Philip  Kearney  of  Civil  War  fame,  who 
was  secretary  and  treasurer  of  the  Province  in  1723. 

All  through  the  west  and  southwest,  Irishmen  are  found  in 
the^  earliest  days  of* authentic  history.  Along  the  Ohio,  Ken- 
tucky, Wabash,  and  Tennessee  rivers  they  were  with  the 
pioneers  who  first  trod  the  wilderness  of  that  vast  territory. 
As  early  as- 1690,  an  Irish  trader  named  Doherty  crossed  the 
mountains  into  what  is.  now  Kentucky,  and  we  are  told  by 
Filson.  the  noted  French  historian  and  explorer  of  Kentucky, 
that  '^'the  first  white  man  who  discovered  this  region"  (1754) 
was  one  James  McBride,  who,  in  all  probability,  was  an  Irish- 
man. The  first  white  child  born  in  Cincinnati  was  a  son  of 
an  Irish  settler  named  John  Cummins ;  the  first  house  built  on 
its  site  was  erected  by  Captain  Hugh  McGarry,  while  "the 
Mc'Garrys,  Dentons,  and  Hogans  formed  the  first  domestic 
circle  jn  Kentucky."  Prior  to  the  Revolution,  Indian  traders 
from,  ^vestern  Pennsylvania  had  penetrated  into  this  region, 
and  we  learn  from  authentic  sources  that  no  small  percentage 
of  those  Itinerant  merchants  of  the  west  were  Irishmen. 
Amanz  the  leading  and  earliest  colonists  of  the  "Blue  Grass 
State"  who  accompanied  Daniel  Boone,  the  ubiquitous  Irish 


the;  IRISH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 


207 


were  represented  by  men  bearing  such  names  as  Mooney,  Mc- 
Manus,  Sullivan,  Drennon,  Logan,  Casey,  Fitzpatrick,  Dun- 
levy,  Cassidy,  Doran,  Dougherty,  Lynch,  Ryan,  McNeill,  Mc- 
Gee,  Reilly,  Flinn,  and  the  noted  McAfee  brothers,  all  natives 
of  Ireland  or  sons  of  Irish  immigrants. 

Irishmen  and  their  sons  figured  prominently  in  the  field  of 
early  v^estern  politics.  In  the  Kentucky  legislature,  I  find 
such  names  as  Connor,  Cassidy,  Cleary,  Conw^ay,  Casey, 
Cavan,  Dulin,  Dougherty,  Geohegan,  Maher,  Morrison,  Moran, 
McMahon,  McFall,  McClanahan,  O'Bannon,  Powers,  and  a 
number  of  others  evidently  of  Irish  origin.  On  the  bench 
we  find  O'Hara,  Boyle,  and  Barry.  Among  the  many  dis- 
tinguished men  who  reflecte  d  honor  upon  the  west,  Judge 
William  T.  Barry  of  Lexington  ranks  high  for  great  ability 
and  lofty  virtues.  Simon  Kenton,  famed  in  song  and  story, 
who  "battled  with  the  Indians  in  a  hundred  encounters  and 
wrested  Kentucky  from  the  savage,"  was  an  Irishman's  son, 
while  among  its  famous  Indian  fighters  were  Colonels  Andrew 
Hynes,  William  Casey,  and  John  O'Bannon;  Majors  Bulger, 
McMullin,  McGarry,  McBride,  Butler,  and  Cassidy;  and  Cap- 
tains McMahon,  Malarkie,  Doyle,  Phelon,  and  Brady.  Allen, 
Butler,  Campbell,  Montgomery,  and  Rowan  counties,  Ky.,  are 
named  after  natives  of  Ireland,  and  Boyle,  Breckinridge,  Car- 
roll, Casey,  Daviess,  Magoffin,  Kenton,  McCracken,  Meade, 
Menifee,  Clinton,  and  Fulton  counties  were  named  in  honor 
of  descendants  of  Irish  settlers. 

In  the  councils  of  the  first  territorial  legislature  o£  Mis- 
souri were  Sullivan,  Cassidy,  Murphy,  McDermid,  McGrady, 
Flaugherty,  McGuire,  Dunn,  and  Hogan,  and  among  the 
merchants,  lawyers,  and  bankers  in  the  pioneer  days  of  St. 
Louis  there  were  a  number  of  Irishmen,  the  most  noted  of 
whom  were  Mullanphy,  Gilhuly,  O'Fallon,  Connor,  O'Hara, 
Dillon,  Ranken,  Magennis,  and  Walsh.  In  all  early  histories 
of  Missouri  towns  and  counties,  Irish  names  are  mentioned, 
and  in  many  instances  they  are  on  record  as  "the  first  settlers.** 

And  so  it  was  all  through  the  west.  In  Ohio,  Indiana, 
Iowa,   and   Illinois,   across   the   rolling   prairies    and  the 


208 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


mountains,  beyond  the  Mississippi  and  the  Missouri,  in  the 
earliest  days  of  colonization  of  that  vast  territor}-,  we  can  fol- 
low the  Irish  "trek"  in  quest  of  new  homes  and  fortunes.  They 
were  part  of  that  irresistible  human  current  that  swept  beyond 
the  ranges  of  Colorado  and  Kansas  and  across  the  Sierra 
Nevada  until  it  reached  the  Pacific,  and  in  the  forefront  of 
those  pathfinders  and  pioneers  find  Martin  Murphy,  the 
first  to  open  a  wagon  trail  to  California  from  the  East.  The 
names  of  Don  Timoteo  Murphy,  of  Jasper  O'Farrell,  of 
Dolans,  Burkes,  Breens,  and  Hallorins  are  linked  with  the  an- 
nals of  the  coast  while  that  territory'  was  still  under  Spanish 
rule,  and  when  Fremont  crossed  the  plains  and  planted  the 
"Bear  flag*'  beyond  the  Sierras,  we  find  Irishmen  among  his 
trusted  lieutenants.  An  Irishman,  Captain  Patrick  Connor,  first 
penetrated  the  wilderness  of  Utah ;  a  descendant  of  an  Irish- 
man, Hall  J.  Kelly,  was  the  explorer  of  Oregon ;  Philip  Nolan 
and  Thomas  O'Connor  were  foremost  among  those  brave  spirits 
"whose  daring  and  persistency  finally  added  the  Lone  Star 
State  to  the  American  Union" ;  and  the  famous  Arctic  ex- 
plorer, scientist,  and  scholar.  Dr.  Elisha  Kent  Kane,  was  a 
descendant  of  John  O'Kane  who  came  from  Ireland  to  the 
Province  of  New  York  in  1752. 

To  form  any  reliable  estimate  of  the  numerical  strength  of 
the  Irish  and  their  descendants  in  the  United  States  would,  I 
believe,  be  a  hopeless  task,  and  w^hile  several  have  attempted 
to  do  so,  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  all  such  estimates  should 
be  discarded  as  mere  conjecture.  Indeed,  there  is  no  standard, 
or  fixed  rule  or  principle,  by  which  a  correct  judgment  of  the 
racial  composition  of  the  early  inhabitants  of  the  United  States 
can  now  be  formed,  and  the  available  statistics  on  the  subject 
are  incomplete  and  confusing.  The  greatest  obstacle  in  de- 
termining this  question  is  found  in  the  names  of  the  immi- 
grants themselves.  With  names  such  as  Smith,  Mason,  Car- 
penter, and  Taylor ;  \\'hite,  Brown,  Black,  and  Gray ;  Forrest, 
Wood,  Mountain,  and  Vail,  and  other  names  that  are  sim- 
ilarly derived,  the  first  thought  is  that  they  are  of  English 
origin.  Yet  we  know  that  for  centuries  past  such  names 
have  been  nimierous  in  Ireland,  and  there  are  many  Irish 


TH^  IRISH  IN  the:  united  STaTI^S 


209 


families  so  named  who  are  of  as  pure  Celtic  blood  as  any 
bearing  the  old  Gaelic  patronymics.  By  a  law  passed  in  the 
second  year  of  the  reign  of  Edward  IV.,  natives  of  Ireland 
were  forced  to  adopt  English  surnames.  This  Act  was,  sub- 
stantially, as  follows :  "An  Act  that  Irishmen  dwelling  in  the 

Counties  of,  etc  shall  go  appareled  like  Englishmen 

and  wear  their  beards  in  English  manner,  swear  allegiance 
and  take  English  sirnames,  which  sirnames  shall  be  of  one 
towne,  as  Sutton,  Chester,  Trim,  Skryne,  Cork,  Kinsale;  or 
colours,  as  white,  black,  brown;  or  arts,  or  sciences,  as  smith 
or  carpenter;  or  ofifice,  as  cook,  butler,  etc.,  and  it  is  enacted 
that  he  and  his  issue  shall  use  his  name  under  pain  of  for- 
feyting  of  his  goods  yearly",  etc. 

This  Act  could  be  enforced  only  upon  those  Irish  families 
who  dwelt  within  the  reach  of  English  law,  and  as  emigrants 
from  those  districts,  deprived  of  their  pure  Celtic  names,  came 
to  America  in  an  English  guise  and  in  English  vessels,  they 
were  officially  recorded  as  "English."  Moreover,  numbers  of 
Irish  frequently  crossed  the  channel  and  began  their  voyage 
from  English  ports,  where  they  had  to  take  on  new  names, 
sometimes  arbitrarily,  and  sometimes  voluntarily  for  purposes 
of  concealment,  either  by  transforming  their  original  names 
into  English  or  adopting  names  similar  to  those  above  referred 
to.  These  names  were  generally  retained  on  this  side  of  the 
Atlantic  so  as  not  to  arouse  the  prejudice  of  their  English 
neighbors.  In  complying  with  the  statute  above  quoted,  some 
Irish  families  accepted  the  rather  doubtful  privilege  of  trans- 
lating their  names  into  their  English  equivalents.  We  have 
examples  of  this  in  such  names  as  Somers,  anglicised  from 
McGauran  (presumably  derived  from  the  Gaelic  word  signify- 
ing "summer")  ;  Smith  from  McGowan  (meaning  "the  son  of 
the  smith")  ;  Jackson  and  Johnson,  a  literal  translation  from 
MacShane  (meaning  "the  son  of  John")  ;  and  Whitcomb  from 
Kiernan  (meaning,  literally,  "a  white  comb").  * 

In  addition  to  this,  in  the  case  of  some  of  those  Irish  immi- 
grants whose  family  names  were  not  changed  in  Ireland,  their 
descendants  appear  in  a  much  disguised  form  in  the  colonial 
records.  Through  the  mistakes  of  clerg}'men,  court  clerks, 
registrars,  and  others  who  had  difficulty  in  pronouncing  Gaelic 


210 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


names,  letters  became  inserted  or  dropped  and  the  names  were 
written  down  phonetically.  In  the  mutations  of  time,  even 
these  names  became  still  further  changed,  and  we  find  that  the 
descendants  of  the  Irish  themselves,  after  the  lapse  of  a  gen- 
eration or  two,  deliberately  changed  their  names,  usually  by 
suppressing  the  Milesian  prefixes,  "Mac"  and  "O".  Thus 
we  have  the  Laflin  and  Claflin  families,  who  are  descended 
from  a  McLaughlin,  an  Irish  settler  in  Massachusetts  in  the 
seventeenth  century;  the  Bryans  from  William  O'Brian,  a 
captain  in  Sarsfield's  army,  who,  after  the  fall  of  Limerick 
in  1691,  settled  in  Pasquetank  County,  N.  C,  and  one  of 
whose  descendants  is  William  Jennings  Bryan,  now  Secretary 
of  State;  the  Dunnels  of  Maine,  from  an  O'Donnell  who 
located  in  the  Saco  Valley;  and  at  the  Land  Office  at  Annap- 
olis I  have  found  the  descendants  of  Roger  O'Dewe,  who 
came  to  Maryland  about  1665,  recorded  under  the  surnames 
of  "Roger",  "Dew",  and  "Dewey".  I  find  Dennis  O'Deeve  or 
O'Deere  written  down  on  the  Talbot  County  (Md.)  records 
of  the  year  1667  with  his  name  reversed,  and  today  his  des- 
cendants are  known  as  "Dennis".  Many  such  instances  ap- 
pear in  the  early  records,  and  when  we  find  a  New  England 
family  rejoicing  in  the  name  of  "Navillus"  we  know  that  the 
limit  has  been  reached,  and  while  we  cannot  admire  the  at- 
tempt to  disguise  an  ancient  and  honorable  name,  we  are 
amused  at  the  obvious  transposition  of  "Sullivan". 

Thus  we  see,  that,  numerous  though  the  old  Irish  names  are 
on  American  records,  they  do  not  by  any  means  indicate  the 
extent  of  the  Celtic  element  which  established  itself  in  the 
colonies,  so  that  there  is  really  no  means  of  determining  ex- 
actly what  Ireland  has  contributed  to  the  American  Common- 
wealth. We  only  know  that  a  steady  stream  of  Irish  immi- 
grants has  crossed  the  seas  to  the  American  continent,  be- 
ginning with  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  centur}%  and  that 
many  of  those  "Exiles  from  Erin",  or  their  sons,  became  prom- 
inent as  leaders  in  every  station  in  life  in  the  new  country. 

Nor  is  the  "First  Census  of  the  United  States"  any  criterion 
in  this  regard,  for  the  obvious  reason  that  the  enumerators 
made  no  returns  of  unmarried  persons.  This  fact  is  im- 
portant when  we  consider  that  the  Irish  exodus  of  the  eigh- 


THK  IRISH  IN  the:  UNITED  STATES 


211 


teenth  century  was  largely  comprised  of  the  youth  of  the 
country.  Although  the  First  Census  was  made  in  1790,  the 
first  regular  record  of  immigration  was  not  begun  until  thirty 
years  later,  and  it  is  only  from  the  records  kept  after  that  time 
that  we  can  depend  upon  actual  official  figures.  During  the 
decade  following  1820,  Ireland  contributed  more  than  forty 
per  cent,  of  the  entire  immigration  to  America  from  all 
European  countries,  and  the  Irish  Emigration  Statistics  show 
that  between  1830  and  1907  the  number  of  people  who  left 
Ireland  was  6,049,432,  the  majority  of  whom  came  to  America. 

The  Westminster  Review  (vol.  133,  p.  293),  in  an  article 
on  "The  Irish-Americans",  puts  a  series  of  questions  as  fol- 
lows :  *Ts  the  American  Republic  in  any  way  indebted  to  those 
Irish  citizens?  Have  they  with  their  large  numbers,  high 
social  standing,  great  places  of  trust,  contributed  aught  to 
her  glory  or  added  aught  to  her  commercial  greatness,  refined 
her  social  taste  or  assisted  in  laying  the  foundations  of  the 
real  happiness  of  her  people,  the  real  security  of  her  laws, 
the  influence  of  her  civic  virtues,  which  more  than  anything 
else  give  power  and  permanency  to  a  naissant  and  mighty 
nation?  The  answer  is  unquestionably  affirmative.  We  have 
only  to  look  back  on  the  past,  and  to  scan  -the  present  state 
of  American  affairs,  to  feel  certain  of  this."  If  it  be  further 
asked :  "Does  this  statement  stand  the  test  of  strict  investiga- 
tion ?"  the  answer  must  also  be  in  the  affirmative,  for  in  almost 
every  line  of  progress  the  Irish  in  America  have  contributed 
their  share  of  leaders  and  pioneers,  thus  proving  that  there 
are  characteristics  among  even  the  poor  Irish  driven  to  emi- 
gration for  an  existence  that  are  as  capable  of  development 
as  those  possessed  by  any  other  race.  When  we  scan  the 
intellectual  horizon,  we  see  many  men  of  great  force  of  char- 
acter :  preachers  and  teachers ;  statesmen  and  scholars ;  phil- 
anthropists and  founders  of  institutions;  scientists  and  en- 
gineers; historians  and  journalists;  artists  and  authors;  law- 
yers and  doctors,  of  Celtic  race  and  blood,  while,  in  the  in- 
dustrial field,  as  builders  of  steamships  and  railroads  and 
promoters  of  public  works,  as  merchants,  manufacturers,  and 
bankers,  and  in  all  other  fields  of  endeavor,  we  find  the 


(15) 


212 


tHE  GLORI$;S  OF  IRELAND 


American  Irish  controlling  factors  in  the  upbuilding  of  the 
Republic. 

Of  the  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  Thorn- 
ton, Taylor,  and  Smith  were  natives  of  Ireland;  McKean, 
Read,  and  Rutledge  were  of  Irish  parentage;  Lynch  and  Car- 
roll were  grandsons  of  Irishmen ;  Whipple  and  Hancock  were 
of  Irish  descent  on  the  maternal  side;  and  O'Hart  (Irish 
Pedigrees)  declares  that  Robert  Treat  Paine  was  a  great- 
grandson  of  Henry  O'Neill,  hereditary  prince  of  Ulster,  who 
"changed  his  name  to  that  of  one  of  his  maternal  ancestors  so 
as  to  save  his  estates".  It  was  an  Irishman  who  first  read 
the  immortal  Document  to  the  public ;  an  Irishman  first  printed 
it;  and  an  Irishman  published  it  for  the  first  time  with  fac- 
similes of  the  signatures. 

At  least  six  American  Presidents  had  more  or  less  of  the 
Celtic  strain.  President  Jackson,  whose  parents*  came  from 
Co.  Down,  more  than  once  expressed  his  pride  in  his  Irish 
ancestry.  Arthur's  parents  were  from  Antrim,  Buchanan's 
from  Donegal,  and  McKinley's  grandparents  came  from  the 
same  vicinity.  Theodore  Roosevelt  boasts  among  his  an- 
cestors two  direct  lines  from  Ireland,  and  the  first  American 
ancestor  of  President  Polk  was  a  Pollock  from  Donegal.  The 
present  occupant  of  the  White  House,  Woodrow  Wilson,  is 
also  of  Irish  descent.  Among  the  distinguished  Vice- 
Presidents  of  the  United  States  were  George  Clinton  and 
John  C.  Calhoun,  sons  of  immigrants  from  Longford  and 
Donegal  respectively,  and  Calhoun's  successor  as  chairman  of 
the  committee  on  foreign  relations  was  John  Smilie,  a  native 
of  Newtownards,  Co.  Down. 

Among  American  governors  since  1800,  we  find  such  names 
as  Barry,  Brady,  Butler,  Carroll,  Clinton,  Conway,  Carney, 
Connolly,  Curtin,  Collins,  Donaghey,  Downey,  Early,  Fitz- 
patrick,  Flannegan,  Geary,  Gorman,  Hannegan,  Kavanagh, 
Kearney,  Logan,  Lynch,  Murphy,  Moore,  McKinley,  McGill, 
Meagher,  McGrath,  IMahone,  McCormick,  O'Neal,  O'Ferrall, 
Orr,  Roane,  Filey,  Sullivan,  Sharkey,  Smith,  Talbot,  and 
Welsh,  all  of  Irish  descent.  Today  we  have  as  governors  of 
States,  Glynn  in  New  York,  Dunne  in  Illinois,  Walsh  in  Mas- 
sachusetts, O'Neal  in  Alabama,  Burke  in  North  Carolina, 


the:  IRISH  IN  THE  UNITKD  STATES 


213 


Carey  in  Wyoming,  McGovern  in  Wisconsin,  McCreary  in 
Kentucky,  and  Tener  in  Pennsylvania,  and  not  alone  is  the 
governor  of  the  last-mentioned  State  a  native  of  Ireland,  but 
so  also  are  its  junior  United  States  Senator,  the  secretary  of 
the  Commonwealth,  and  its  adjutant-general. 

In  the  political  life  of  America,  many  of  the  sons  of  Ireland 
have  risen  to  eminence,  and  in  the  legislative  halls  at  the 
National  Capital,  the  names  of  Kelly,  Fitzpatrick,  Broderick, 
Casserly,  Farley,  Logan,  Harlan,'  Hannegan,  Adair,  Barry, 
Rovi^an,  Gorman,  Kennedy,  Lyon,  Fitzgerald,  Fair,  Sewall, 
Kernan,  Butler,  Moore,  Regan,  Mahone,  Walsh,  and  Flanne- 
gan,  are  still  spoken  of  w^ith  respect  among  the  lawmakers  of 
the  nation.  William  Darrah  Kelly  served  in  Congress  for 
fifty  years,  and  it  remained  for  James  Shields  to  hold  the  uni- 
que distinction  of  representing  three  different  States,  at  dif- 
ferent times,  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States.  Senator 
Shields  was  a  native  of  Co,  Tyrone. 

In  the  judiciary  have  been  many  shining  lights  of  Irish 
origin.  The  Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court  is  Edward  D.  White,  grandson  of  a  '98  rebel,  and  one 
of  his  ablest  associates  is  Joseph  McKenna.  No  more  erudite 
or  profound  lawyer  than  Charles  O'Conor  has  adorned  his 
profession  and  it  can  be  said  with  truth  that  his  career  has 
remained  unrivalled  in  American  history.  James  T.  Brady, 
Daniel  Dougherty,  Thomas  Addis  Emmet,  and  Charles  O'Neill 
were  among  the  most  eminent  lawyers  America  has  known, 
while  the  names  of  Dennis  O'Brien,  Chief  Justice  of  the  New 
York  Court  of  Appeals,  John  D.  O'Neill,  who  occupied  a  like 
elevated  place  on  the  bench  of  South  Carolina,  John  D.  Phelan 
of  the  Alabama  Supreme  Court,  Richard  O'Gorman,  Charles 
P.  Daly,  Hugh  Rutledge,  Morgan  J.  O'Brien,  and  others  of 
like  origin,  are  household  words  in  the  legal  annals  of  America. 
There  is  no  State  in  the  Union  where  an  Irish- American 
lawyer  has  not  distinguished  himself. 

The  history  of  medicine  in  the  United  States  is  adorned" 
with  the  names  of  many  physicians  of  Irish  birth  or  blood. 
Several  Irish  surgeons  rendered  valuable  services  in  the  army 
of  the  Revolution,  among  whom  are  found  Drs.  McDonough, 
McHenry,  McCloskey,  McCalla,  Burke,  Irvine,  and  William- 


214 


The  glories  01?  IRELAND 


^on.  Dr.  John  Cochran  was  appointed  by  Washington  sur- 
geon-general of  the  army.  Dr.  James  Lynah  of  Charleston,  a 
native  of  Ireland,  became  surgeon-general  of  South  Carolina 
in  recognition  of  his  valuable  services  to  the  patriot  army.  Dr. 
John  McKinley,  a  native  of  Ireland,  who  was  a  famous  phy- 
sician in  his  day,  became  the  first  governor  of  Delaware.  Dr. 
Ephraim  McDowell  is  known  in  the  profession  as  the  "Father 
of  Ovariotomy",  as  is  Dr.  William  J.  McNevin  the  "Father 
of  American  Chemistry".  Dr.  John  Byrne  of  New  York  had 
a  world-wide  fame,  and  his  papers  on  g}Tiecology  have  been 
pronounced  by  the  medical  press  as  "the  best  printed  in  any 
language".  One  of  the  most  conspicuous  figures  in  medicine 
in  the  United  States  was  Dr.  Jerome  Cochran  of  Alabama. 
Drs.  Junius  F.  Lynch  of  Florida;  Charles  McCreery  of  Ken- 
tucky ;  Hugh  McGuire  and  Hunter  McGuire  of  Virginia ;  Mat- 
thew C.  McGannon  of  Tennessee;  and  James  Lynch,  Charles 
J.  O'Hagan,  and  James  McBride  of  South  Carolina  are  men- 
tioned prominently  in  the  histories  of  their  respective  localities 
as  the  foremost  medical  men  of  their  times,  while  in  Wisconsin 
the  pioneer  phvsician  was  Dr.  William  H.  Fox,  and  in  Oregon, 
Dr.  John  !McLoughlin.  Among  New  York  physicians  who 
achieved  high  reputations  in  their  profession  were  Drs.  Thomas 
Addis  Emmet,  Frank  A.  McGuire,  Daniel  E.  O'Neill,  Charles 
McBumey,  Isaac  H.  Reiley,  Alfred  L.  Carroll,  Howard  A. 
Kelly,  Joseph  O'Dwyer,  and  James  J.  Walsh.  These  and 
many  others  of  Irish  descent  have  been  honored  by  medical 
societies  as  leaders  and  specialists,  while  it  can  be  said  that  no 
surgeon  of  the  present  day  has  achieved  such  a  world-wide 
reputation  as  Dr.  John  B.  Murphy  of  Chicago.  Among  ex- 
perts in  medico-legal  science,  the  names  of  Drs.  Benjamin 
W.  McCreedy  and  William  J.  O'Sullivan  of  New  York  stand 
out  prominently,  and  among  the  most  noted  contributors  to 
medical  journals  in  the  United  States,  and  recognized  as  men 
of  great  professional  skill  and  authorities  in  their  respective 
specialties,  have  been  Drs.  F.  D.  Mooney  of  St.  Louis;  Thomas 
Fitzgibbon  of  T^Iilwaukee;  John  D.  Hanrahan  of  Rutland; 
James  McCann  and  James  H.  IVIcClelland  of  Pittsburgh ;  John 
A.  Murphy  and  John  McCurdy  of  Cincinnati ;  John  Keating  of 
Philadelphia;  John  H.  Murphy  of  St.  Paul;  John  W.  C. 


THE  IRISH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 


215 


O'Neal  of  Gettysburg;  and  Arthur  O'Neill  of  Meadville,  Pa. 
Indeed,  it  can  be  said  that  American  medical  science  owes 
an  incalculable  debt  to  Irish  genius. 

Theodore  Vail,  the  presiding  genius  of  the  greatest  tele- 
phone system  in  the  world,  is  Irish,  and  so  is  Carty,  its  chief 
engineer.  Morse,  the  inventor  of  the  telegraph,  was  the 
grandson  of  an  Irishman;  Henry  O'Reilly  built  the  first  tele- 
graph line  in  the  United  States;  and  John  W.  Mackey  was 
the  president  of  the  Commercial  Cable  Company.  John  P» 
Holland,  the  inventor  of  the  submarine  torpedo  boat,  was  a 
native  of  Co.  Clare;  and  McCormick,  the  inventor  of  the 
reaping  and  mowing  machine,  was  an  Irishman's  grandson. 

Sons  of  Irishmen  have  stood  in  the  front  rank  of  American 
statesmen  and  diplomats  who  represented  their  country  abroad. 
To  mention  but  a  few :  Richard  O'Brien,  appointed  by  Jeffer- 
son American  representative,  at  Algiers;  James  Kavanagh, 
Minister  to  Portugal ;  and  Louis  McLane,  Minister  to  England 
in  1829  and  afterwards  Secretary  of  State  in  1832.  In  recent 
years,  an  O'Brien  has  represented  American  interests  in  Italy 
and  Japan ;  a  Kerens  in  Austria ;  an  Egan  in  Chili  and  another 
of  the  same  name  in  Denmark ;  an  O'Shaughnessy  in  Mexico ; 
a  Sullivan  in  Santo  Domingo ;  and  an  O'Rear  in  Bolivia. 

Among  historians  were  John  Gilmary  Shea,  author  of  num- 
erous historical  works ;  Dr.  Robert  Walsh,  a  learned  historian 
and  journalist  of  the  last  century,  whose  literary  labors  were 
extensive ;  McMahon  and  McSherry,  historians  of  Maryland ; 
Burk,  of  Virginia;  O'Callaghan,  Hastings,  and  Murphy  of 
New  York;  Ramsay  of  South  Carolina;  and  Williamson  of 
North  Carolina,  all  native  Irishmen  or  sons  of  Irish  immi- 
grants 

In  the  field  of  American  journalism  have  been  many  able 
and  forcible  writers  of  Irish  birth  or  descent.  Hugh  Gaine, 
a  Belfast  man,  founded  the  New  York  Mercury  in  1775.  John 
Dunlap  founded  the  first  daily  paper  in  Philadelphia,  John 
Daly  Burk  published  the  first  daily  paper  in  Boston,  and  Wil- 
liam Duane  edited  the  Aurora  of  Philadelphia  in  1795.  All 
these  were  born  in  Ireland.  William  Coleman,  founder  of 
the  New  York  Evening  Post  in  1801,  was  the  son  of  an  Irish 
rebel  of  1798;  Thomas  Fitzgerald  founded  the  Philadelphia 


216 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


Item;  Thomas  Gill,  the  New  York  Evening  Star;  Patrick 
Walsh,  the  Augusta  Chronicle;  Joseph  Medill,  the  Chicago 
Tribune.  Henry  W.  Grady  edited  the  Atlanta  Constitution; 
Michael  Dee  edited  the  Detroit  Evening  News  for  nearly 
fifty  years ;  Richard  Smith,  the  Cincinnati  Gazette;  Edward 
L.  Godkin,  the  New  York  Evening  Post;  William  Laffan, 
the  New  York  Sun;  and  Horace  Greeley,  the  New  York 
Tribune.  All  of  these  were  either  natives  of  Ireland  or 
sprung  from  immigrant  Irishmen,  as  were  Oliver  of  the  Pitts- 
burgh Gazette,  O'Neill  of  the  Pittsburgh  Despatch,  John 
Keating  of  Memphis,  William  D.  O'Connor,  and  many  other 
shining  lights  of  American  journalism  during  the  last  century. 
Fitz  James  O'Brien  was  "a  bright,  particular  star"  in  the 
journalistic  firmament;  John  MacGahan  achieved  fame  as  a 
war  correspondent;  Patrick  Barry  of  Rochester,  an  extensive 
writer  on  horticultural  and  kindred  subjects,  was  the  recog- 
nized leader  of  his  craft  in  the  United  States;  and  William 
Darby,  son  of  Patrick  and  Mary  Darby,  and  Michael  Twomey 
were  the  ablest  American  geographers  and  writers  on  ab- 
struse scientific  subjects. 

In  the  field  of  poetry,  we  have  had  Theodore  O'Hara,  the 
author  of  that  immortal  poem,  "The  Bivouac  of  the  Dead"; 
John  Boyle  O'Reilly;  Thomas  Dunn  English,  author  of  "Ben 
Bolt";  Father  Abram  Ryan,  "the  poet  priest  of  the  South"; 
James  Whitcomb  Riley ;  Eleanor  Donnelly ;  M.  F.  Egan ;  T.  A. 
Daly;  and  Joseph  1.  C.  Clarke,  president  of  the  American  Irish 
Historical  Society. 

To  recount  the  successful  men  of  affairs  of  Irish  origin  it 
would  be  necessary  to  mention  every  branch  of  business  and 
every  profession.  Recalling  but  a  few,  Daniel  O'Day,  Patrick 
Farrelly,  John  and  William  O'Brien,  Alexander  T.  Stewart, 
John  Castree,  Joseph  J.  O'Donohue,  William  R.  Grace,  John 
McConville,  Hugh  O'Neill,  Alexander  E.  Orr,  William  Con- 
stable, Daniel  McCormick,  and  Dominick  Lynch,  all  of  New 
York,  were  dominant  figures  in  the  world  of  business.  Thomas 
Mellon  of  Pittsburgh;  John  R.  Walsh  and  the  Cudahy 
brothers  of  Chicago;  James  Phelan,  Peter  Donahue,  Joseph 
A.  Donohoe,  and  John  Sullivan  of  San  Francisco ;  William  A. 
Clark  and  Marcus  Daly  of  Montana;  George  Meade,  the 


TH^  IRISH  IN  THl^  UNITED  STATES 


217 


Meases  and  the  Nesbits,  Thomas  FitzSimmons  and  Thomas 
Dolan  of  Philadelphia ;  Columbus  O'Donnell  and  Luke  Tiernan 
of  Baltimore,  all  these  have  been  leading  merchants  in  their 
day.  Few  American  financiers  occupy  a  more  conspicuous 
place  than  Thomas  F.  Ryan,  and  no  great  industrial  leader  has 
reached  the  pinnacle  of  success  upon  which  stands  the  com- 
manding fi.gure  of  James  J.  Hill,  both  sons  of  Irishmen.  The 
names  of  Anthony  N.  Brady,  Eugene  Kelly,  James  S.  Strana- 
han,  and  James  A.  Farrell,  president  of  the  United  States  Steel 
Corporation,  are  household  words  in  business  and  financial 
circles. 

John  Keating,  the  first  paper  manufacturer  in  New  York 
(1775)  ;  Thomas  Faye,  the  first  to  manufacture  wall-paper  by 
machinery,  who  won  for  this  distinction  the  first  gold 
medal  of  the  American  Institute;  John  and  Edward  Mc- 
Loughlin  of  New  York,  for  many  years  the  leading  publishers 
of  illustrated  books ;  and  John  Banigan  of  Providence,  one  of 
the  largest  manufacturers  of  rubber  goods  in  America,  were 
natives  of  Ireland.  John  O'Fallon  and  Bryan  Mullanphy  of 
St.  Louis,  and  John  McDonough  of  Baltimore,  who  amassed 
great  wealth  as  merchants,  were  large  contributors  to  charita- 
ble and  educational  institutions ;  William  W.  Corcoran,  whose 
name  is  enshrined  in  the  famous  Art  Gallery  at  Washington, 
contributed  during  his  lifetime  over  five  million  dollars  to 
various  philanthropic  institutions;  and  one  of  the  most  noted 
philanthropists  in  American  history,  and  the  first  woman  in 
America  to  whorn  a  public  monument  was  erected,  was  an 
Irishwoman,  Margaret  Haughery  of  New  Orleans. 

Jrishmen  have  shown  a  remarkable  aptitude  for  the  handling 
of  large  contracts,  and  in  this  field  have  been  prominent  John 
H^O'Rourke,  James  D.  Leary,  James  Coleman,  Oliver  Byrne, 
and  John  D.  Crimmins  in  New  York;  John  B.  McDonald, 
the  builder  of  New  York^s  subways;  George  Law,  projector 
and  promoter  of  public  works,  steamship  and  railroad  builder ; 
and  John  Roach,  the  famous  ship-builder  of  Chester,  Pa.  John 
Sullivan,  a-  noted  American  engineer  one  hundred  years  ago. 
completed  the  Middlesex  Canal;  and  John  McL.  Murphy, 
whos^  ability  as  a  constructing  engineer  was  universally 
recognized,  rendered  valuable  service  to  the  United  States 


218 


THE^  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


during  the  Civil  War.  Among  pioneer  ship-builders  in 
America  are  noted  Patrick  Tracy  from  Wexford  and  Simon 
Forrester  from  Cork,  who  were  both  at  Salem,  Mass.,  during 
the  period  of  the  Revolution  and  rendered  most  valuable  ser- 
vice to  the  patriot  cause;  and  the  O'Briens,  Kavanaghs,  and 
Sewalls  in  Maine. 

But  it  is  not  in  the  material  things  of  life  alone  that  the 
Irish  have  been  in  the  van.  Thousands  of  Americans  have 
been  charmed  by  the  operas  of  Victor  Herbert,  a  grandson 
of  Samuel  Lover,  and  with  lovers  of  music  the  strains  of 
Patrick  Sarsfield  Gilmore's  band  still  linger  as  a  pleasant 
memory.  Edward  A.  MacDowell,  America's  most  famous  com- 
poser, was  of  Irish  descent.  The  colossal  statute  of  "America" 
on  the  dome  of  the  National  Capitol  was  executed  by  Thomas 
Crawford,  who  was  born  in  New  York  of  Irish  parents  in 
1814 ;  Henry  Inman,  one  of  the  very  best  of  portrait  painters, 
was  also  born  in  New  York  of  Irish  parents ;  John  Singleton 
Copley^  the  distinguished  artist,  came  to  Boston  from  Co.  Clare 
in  1736 ;  Thompson,  the  sculptor,  was  born  in  Queen's  Co. ; 
another  noted  sculptor  was  William  D.  O'Donovan  of  \"ir- 
ginia ;  and  Augustus  Saint  Gaudens,  one  of  the  greatest  sculp- 
tors of  modern  times,  was  born  in  Dublin.  Other  sculptors  of 
Irish  race  have  been  elsewhere  mentioned.  Among  America's 
most  talented  artists  and  portrait  painters  may  be  mentioned 
George  P.  Healy,  William  J.  Hennessy,  Thomas  Moran,  Henry 
Pelham,  Henry  Murray,  John  Neagle,  and  William  Magrath, 
^11  of  Irish  birth  or  descent. 

Ireland  has  given  many  eminent  churchmen  to  the  United 
States.  The  three  American  Cardinals,  Gibbons,  Farley,  and 
O'Connell,  stand  out  prominently,  as  do  Archbishops  Carroll, 
Hughes,  McCloskey,  Kenrick,  Ryan,  Ireland,  Glennon,  Corri- 
gan,  and  Keane,  all  of  whom  have  shed  lustre  on  the  Church. 
History  has  given  to  an  Irishman,  Francis  Makemie  of  Done- 
gal, the  credit  of  founding  Presbyterianism  in  America,  while 
among  noted  Presb>terian  divines  of  Irish  birth  were  James 
Waddell,  known  as  *'the  blind  preacher  of  the  wilderness,'* 
Thomas  Smyth,  John  Hall,  Francis  Allison,  William  Tennant, 
and  James  McGrady,  all  men  of  g^eat  ability  and  influence  in 
their  day.  Samuel  Finley,  President  of  Princeton  College  in 


TH^  IRISH  IN  THS  UNITED  STATES 


219 


1761,  was  a  native  of  Armagh,  and  John  Blair  Smith,  famous  as 
a  preacher  throughout  the  Shenandoah  Valley  and  the  first 
president  of  Union  College  (1795),  was  of  Irish  descent. 
Among  the  pioneer  preachers  of  the  western  wilderness  were 
McMahon,  Dougherty,  Quinn,  Burke,  O'Cool,  Delaney,  Mc- 
Gee,  and  many  others  of  Irish  origin. 

Irishmen  and  their  sons  have  founded  American  towns  and 
cities,  and  the  capital  of  the  State  of  Colorado  takes  its  name 
from  General  James  Denver,  son  of  Patrick  Denver,  an  emi- 
grant from  county  Down  in  the  year  1795.  Sixty-five  places 
in  the  United  States  are  named  after  people  bearing  the  Irish 
prefix  "O"  and  upwards  of  1000  after  the  "Macs",  and  there 
are  253  counties  of  the  United  States  and  approximately  7000 
places  called  by  Irish  family  or  place  names.  There  are  24 
Dublins,  21  Waterfords,  18  Belfasts,  16  Tyrones,  10  Limericks, 
9  Antrims,  8  Sligos,  7  Derrys,  6  Corks,  5  Kildares,  and  so  on. 

Immigrant  Irishmen  have  also  been  the  founders  of  promi- 
nent American  families.  One  of  the  most  ancient  of  Irish  pa- 
tronymics, McCarthy,  is  found  in  the  records  of  Virginia  as 
early  as  1635  and  in  Massachusetts  in  1675,  and  all  down 
through  the  successive  generations  descendants  of  this  sept 
were  among  the  leading  families  of  the  communities  where 
they  located.  In  Virginia,  the  McCormick,  Meade,  Lewis, 
Preston,  and  Lynch  families;  in  the  Carolinas,  the  Canteys, 
Nealls,  Bryans,  and  Butlers ;  and  in  Maryland,  the  Carrolls  and 
Dulanys  are  all  descended  from  successful  Irish  colonizers. 

Even  from  this  very  incomplete  summary,  we  can  see  that 
Irish  blood,  brain,  and  brawn  have  been  a  valuable  acquisition 
to  the  building  of  the  fabric  of  American  institutions,  and 
that  the  sons  of  Ireland  merit  more  prominent  recognition  than 
has  been  accorded  them  in  the  pages  of  American  history. 
The  Pharisees  of  history  may  have  withheld  from  Ireland  the 
credit  that  is  her  due,  but,  thanks  to  the  never-failing  guidance 
of  the  records,  we  are  able  to  show  that  at  all  times,  whether 
they  came  as  voluntary  exiles  or  were  driven  from  their  homes 
by  the  persecutions  of  government,  her  sons  have  had  an  hon-* 
orable  part  in  every  upward  movement  in  American  life.  Tes- 
timony adduced  from  the  sources  from  which  this  imperfect 
sketch  is  drawn  cannot  be  called  into  question,  and  its  perusal 


220 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


by  those  who  so  amusingly  glorify  the  ''Anglo-Saxon"  as  the 
founder  of  the  American  race  and  American  institutions 
would  have  a  chastening  influence  on  their  ignorance  of  early 
American  history,  and  would  reopen  the  long  vista  of  the  years, 
at  the  very  beginning  of  which  they  would  see  Celt  and 
Teuton,  Saxon  and  Gaul,  working  side  by  side  solidifying 
the  fulcrum  of  the  structure  on  which  this  great  nation  rests. 


Refebexces : 


The  archives,  registers,  records,  reports,  and  other  official  docu- 
ments mentioned  in  the  text;  the  various  Town,  County,  and  State 
Histories ;  the  collections  and  publications  of  the  following  societies : 
Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  Genealogical  Society  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, New  York  Historical  Society  (34  vols.),  New  York  Genea- 
logical and  Biographical  Society  (44  vols.),  Maine  Historical  Society, 
Rhode  Island  Historical  Society,  Connecticut  Historical  Society, 
South  Carolina  Historical  Society,  and  American  Historical  Society; 
New  England  Historical  and  Genealogical  Register  (67  vols.,  Boston, 
1847-1913 )  ;  New  England  Historical  and  Biographical  Record ; 
Hakluyt:  Voyages,  Navigations,  Traffiques,  and  Discoveries  of  the 
English  Nation  (London,  1607);  Dobbs:  The  Trade  and  Improve- 
ment of  Ireland  (Dublin,  1729);  Hutchinson:  History  of  Massa- 
chusetts from  the  First  Settlement  in  1628  until  1750  (Salem,  1795)  ; 
Proud:  History  of  Pennsylvania,  1681-1770  (Philadelphia,  1797- 
1798)  ;  Savage:  Genealogical  Dictionary  of  the  First  Settlers  of  New 
England  (Boston,  1860-1862)  ;  Morris  (ed.)  :  The  Makers  of  New 
York  (Philadelphia,  1895);  Pope:  The  Pioneers  of  Massachusetts 
(Boston,  1900),  The  Pioneers  of  Maine  and  New  Hampshire  (Boston, 
1908);  Richardson:  Side-lights  on  Maryland  History  (Baltimore, 
1913^  ;  Spencer:  History  of  the  United  States;  Ramsay:  History  of 
the  United  States;  Prendergast:  Cromwellian  Settlement  of  Ireland. 


THE  IRISH  IN  CANADA 


By  James  J.  Wai.sh,  M.D.,  Ph.D.,  Litt.D.,  Sc.D. 

WHEN  Wolfe  captured  Quebec  and  Canada  came  under 
British  rule,  some  of  the  best  known  of  his  officers  and 
several  of  his  men  were  Irish.  After  the  Peace  was  signed 
many  of  them  settled  in  Canada,  not  a  few  of  them  marrying 
French  wives,  and  as  a  consequence  there  are  numerous  Irish, 
Scotch,  and  English  names  among  the  French  speaking  in- 
habitants of  Lower  Canada.  Two  of  Wolfe's  officers,  Colonel 
Guy  Carleton,  born  at  Strabane  in  the  county  Tyrone,  and 
General  Richard  Montgomery,  born  only  seven  miles  away 
at  Convoy,  in  the  same  county,  were  destined  to  play  an 
important  role  in  the  future  history  of  Canada.  Montgomery 
was  in  command  of  the  Revolutionary  Army  from  the  Colo- 
nies, when  it  attempted  to  take  Quebec,  and  Carleton,  who  had 
been  a  trusted  friend  of  General  Wolfe,  was  in  command  of 
the  Canadian  forces.  The  two  men  were  the  lives  of  their 
respective  commands,  and  with  the  death  of  Montgomery 
Carleton's  victory  was  assured. 

Carleton  was  made  Governor-in-Chief  of  Canada,  and  dur- 
ing the  trying  years  of  the  early  British  rule  of  New  France 
and  the  American  Revolution,  his  tact  did  more  than  anything 
else  to  save  Canada  for  the  British.  Bibaud,  the  French 
historian,  says,  "the  man  to  whom  the  administration  of  the 
government  was  entrusted  had  known  how  to  make  the 
Canadians  love  him,  and  this  contributed  not  a  little  to  retain 
at  least  within  the  bounds  of  neutrality  those  among  them 
who  might  have  been  able,  or  who  believed  themselves  able, 
to  ameliorate  their  lot  by  making  common  cause  with  the 
insurgent  colonies."  Shortly  after  being  made  governor,  Carle- 
ton went  to  England  and  secured  the  passage  of  the  Quebec 
Act  through  the  English  parliament,  which  gave  the  Canadian 
French  assurance  that  they  were  to  be  ruled  without  oppression 
by  the  British  Government.  Subsequently,  in  1786,  Carleton, 
as  Lord  Dorchester,  became  the  first  governor-general  of 
Canada,  being  given  jurisdiction  over  Nova  Scotia  and  New 
Brunswick  as  well  as  Upper  and  Lower  Canada,  and  to  him 


222 


THEi  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


more  than  to  any  other  is  due  the  early  loyalty  to  the  British 
crown  in  the  Dominion. 

After  the  army  the  next  important  source  of  Irish  popula- 
tion in  Canada  were  the  loyalists  who  after  the  Revolution 
removed  from  the  United  States  to  the  British  Dominions  in 
America.  There  were  probably  many  thousands  of  them, 
more  than  enough  to  make  up  for  the  French  who  left  Canada 
for  France  when  the  territory  passed  over  to  England.  Among 
the  Irish  loyalists  who  went  to  Canada  was  the  Rev.  John 
Stuart,  who  had  become  very  well  known  as  a  missionary  in 
the  Mohawk  Valley  before  the  Revolution,  and  who,  though 
born  a  Presbyterian,  was  destined  to  win  the  title  of  the 
"Father  of  the  Church  of  England  in  Upper  Canada."  When 
the  first  Canadian  parliament  met  in  December  1792,  Edward 
O'Hara  was  returned  for  Gaspe,  in  Lower  Canada,  and  D'Arcy 
McGee  could  boast  that  henceforward  Lower  Canada  was 
never  without  an  Irish  representative  in  its  legislative  councils. 

When  the  question  of  settling  Upper  Canada  with  British 
colonists  came  up,  Colonel  Talbot,  a  county  Dublin  man,  was 
the  most  important  factor.  He  obtained  a  large  grant  of  land 
near  what  is  now  London  and  attracted  settlers  into  what  was 
at  that  time  a  wilderness.  The  tract  settled  under  his  super- 
intendence now  comprises  twenty-nine  townships  in  the  most 
prosperous  part  of  Canada. 

The  maritime  Provinces  had  been  under  British  rule  before 
the  fall  of  Quebec  and  contained  a  large  element  of  Irish 
population.  In  Newfoundland  in  1753  out  of  a  total  popula- 
tion of  some  thirteen  thousand,  Davin  says  that  there  were 
nearly  five  thousand  Catholics,  chiefly  Irish.  In  1784  a  great 
new  stimulus  to  Irish  immigration  to  Newfoundland  was 
given  by  Father  O'Connell,  who  in  1796  was  made  Catholic 
bishop  of  the  island.  Newfoundland,  for  its  verdure,  the 
absence  of  reptiles,  and  its  Irish  inhabitants,  was  called  at 
this  time  "Transatlantic  Ireland",  and  Bonnycastle  says  that 
more  than  one  half  of  the  population  was  Irish. 

In  1749  Governor  Cornwallis  brought  some  4,000  disbanded 
soldiers  to  Nova  Scotia  and  founded  Halifax.  Ten  years 
later  it  was  described  as  divided  into  Halifax  proper,  Irish- 
town  or  the  southern,  and  Dutchtown  or  the  northern,  suburbs. 


THIC   IRISH   IN  CANADA 


223 


The  inhabitants  numbered  3,000,  one-third  of  whom  were 
Irish.  They  were  among  the  most  prominent  men  of  the 
city  and  province.  In  the  Privy  Council  for  1789  were 
Thomas  Corcoran  and  Charles  Morris.  Morris  was  president 
of  the  Irish  Society  and  Matthew  Cahill  the  sheriff  of  Halifax 
in  that  year.  A  large  number  of  Irish  from  the  north  of 
Ireland  settled  in  Nova  Scotia  in  1763,  calling  their  settle- 
ment Londonderry.  They  provided  a  fortunate  refuge  for 
the  large  numbers  of  Irish  Presbyterians  who  were  expelled 
from  New  England  by  the  intolerant  Puritans  the  following 
year.  They  also  welcomed  many  loyalists  who  cam.e  from  New 
York  and  the  New  England  States  after  the  acknowledgment 
of  the  independence  of  the  American  Colonies  by  Great  Brit- 
ain. Between  the  more  eastern  settlers  around  Halifax  and 
those  in  the  interior,  the  greater  part  of  the  population  of 
Nova  Scotia  was  probably  Irish  in  origin. 

It  was  in  the  Maritime  Provinces  that  the  first  step  in  politi- 
cal emancipation  for  Catholics  under  British  rule  was  made. 
In  1821  Lawrence  Cavanaugh,  a  Roman  Catholic,  was  re- 
turned to  the  Assembly  of  the  Province  for  Cape  Breton. 
He  would  not  subscribe  to  the  declaration  on  Transubstantia- 
tion  in  the  oath  of  office  tendered  him,  and  as  a  consequence 
was  refused  admittance  to  the  Assembly.  But  he  was  elected 
again  and  again,  and  six  years  afterwards  Judge  Haliburton, 
better  known  by  his  nom  de  plume  of  "Sam  Slick",  in  an  able 
speech,  seconded  the  motion  to  dispense  with  the  declaration, 
and  Cavanaugh  was  permitted  to  take  the  oath  without  the 
declaration. 

The  War  of  1812  brought  over  from  Ireland  a  number  of 
Irish  soldiers  serving  in  the  British  army,  many  of  whom 
after  the  war  settled  down  and  became  inhabitants  of  the 
country.  They  were  allotted  farm  lands  and  added  much  to 
Canada's  prosperity.  A  type  of  their  descendants  was  Sir 
William  Hingston,  whose  father  was  at  this  time  a  lieutenant 
adjutant  in  the  Royal  100th  Regiment,  "the  Dublins."  Sir 
William's  father  died  when  his  son  was  a  mere  boy,  but  the 
lad  supported  his  mother,  worked  his  way  through  the  med- 
ical school,  saved  enough  money  to  give  himself  two  years 
in  Europe,  and  became  a  great  surgeon.  He  was  elected  three 
times  mayor  of  Montreal,  serving  one  term  with  great  pres- 


224 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


tige  under  the  most  trying  circumstances.  He  afterwards  be- 
came a  senator  of  the  Dominion  and  was  knighted  by  Queen 
Victoria. 

Prince  Edward  Island  was  settled  mainly  by  the  Scotch  and 
French,  and  yet  many  Irish  names  are  to  be  found  among  its 
old  families.  It  was  ceded  to  Great  Britain  in  1763,  and^he 
first  Governor  appointed  was  Captain  Walter  Patterson,  whose 
niece,  Elizabeth  Patterson,  was  married  to  Jerome  Bonaparte 
in  Baltimore  in  1803.  Captain  Patterson  was  so  ardent  an 
Irishman  that  through  his  influence  he  had  an  act  passed  by 
the  Assembly  changing  the  name  of  the  island  to  New  Ireland, 
but  the  home  Government  refused  to  countenance  the  change. 
At  this  time  the  island  was  known  as  St.  John's,  and  the  name 
Prince  Edward  was  given  to  it  in  honor  of  the  Duke  of  Kent 
in  1789.  One  of  the  most  popular  governors  of  the  island  was 
Sir  Dominick  Daly,  knighted  while  in  office.  He  was  a  mem- 
ber of  a  well  known  Galway  family,  and  first  came  to  America 
as  secretary  to  one  of  the  governors.  He  afterwards  became 
provincial  secretary  for  Lower  Canada. 

Canada  suffered  from  the  aftermath  of  the  revolutions 
which  took  place  in  Europe  during  the  early  part  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  The  year  1837  saw  two  revolutions,  one  in 
Upper,  the  other  in  Lower,  Canada,  though  neither  of  them 
amounted  to  more  than  a  flash  in  the  pan.  As  might  be  ex- 
pected, there  were  not  a  few  Irish  among  the  disaffected  spirits 
who  fostered  these  revolutions.  Their  experience  at  home 
led  them  to  know  how  little  oppressed  people  were  likely  to 
obtain  from  the  British  Government  except  by  a  demonstra- 
tion of  force.  There  were  serious  abuses,  especially  "the 
Family  Compact",  the  lack  of  anything  approaching  constitu- 
tional guarantees  in  government,  and  political  disabilities  on 
the  score  of  religion.  However,  most  of  the  Irish  in  Canada 
were  ranged  on  the  side  of  the  government.  Sir  Richard  Bon- 
nycastle,  writing  in  1846,  said  "The  Catholic  Irish  who  have 
been  long  settled  in  the  country  are  by  no  means  the  worst  sub- 
jects in  this  transatlantic  realm,  as  I  can  personally  testify, 
having  had  the  command  of  large  bodies  of  them  during  the 
border  troubles  of  1837-8.  They  are  all  loyal  and  true."  Above 
all  Bonnycastle  pledged  himself  for  the  loyalty  of  the  Irish 
Catholic  priesthood. 


Tne  IRISH   IN  CANADA 


225 


One  of  the  Irishmen  who  came  into  prominence  in  the 
rebelHons  of  1837  was  Edmund  Bailey  O'Callaghan,  the  editor 
of  the  Vindicator,  the  newspaper  by  means  of  which  Papineau 
succeeded  in  arousing  much  feehng  among  the  people  of  Lower 
Canada  and  fomented  the  Revolution.  O'Callaghan  escaped 
to  the  United  States  and  settled  at  Albany,  where  he  became 
the  historian  of  New  York  State.  To  him,  more  than  to  any 
other,  we  owe  the  preservation  of  the  historical  materials  out 
of  which  the  early  history  of  the  State  can  be  constructed. 
Rare  volumes  of  the  Jesuit  Relations,  to  the  value  of  which 
for  historical  purposes  he  had  called  special  attention,  were 
secured  from  his  library  for  the  Canadian  library  at  Ottawa. 

Towards  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  when  the  popu- 
lation of  Ireland  reached  its  highest  point  of  over  8,000,000, 
the  pressure  on  the  people  caused  them  to  emigrate  in  large 
numbers,  and  then  the  famine  came  to  drive  out  great  crowds 
of  those  who  survived.  In  proportion  to  its  population  Canada 
received  a  great  many  more  of  these  Irish  emigrants  than  did 
the  United  States.  Unfortunately  the  conditions  on  board 
the  emigrant  sailing  vessels  in  those  days  cost  many  lives. 
They  were  often  becalmed  and  took  months  to  cross  the  ocean. 
My  grandmother  coming  in  the  thirties  was  ninety-three  days 
in  crossing,  landing  at  Quebec  after  seven  weeks  on  half 
rations,  part  of  the  time  living  on  nothing  but  oatmeal  and 
water.  Ship  fever,  the  dreaded  typhus,  broke  out  on  her  ves- 
sel as  on  so  many  others,  and  more  than  half  the  passengers 
perished.  Many,  many  thousands  of  the  Irish  emigrants  thus 
died  on  ship-board  or  shortly  after  landing.  In  1912,  the 
Ancient  Order  of  Hibernians  erected  near  Quebec  a  monu- 
ment to  the  victims.  In  spite  of  the  untoward  conditions, 
emigration  continued  unabated,  and  in  1875,  in  the  population 
of  Ontario,  Quebec,  New  Brunswick,  and  Nova  Scotia,  it  was 
calculated  that  the  Irish  numbered  846,414  as  compared  with 
706,369  English  and  549,946  Scotch  (Hatton,  quoted  by  Davin 
in  The  Irishman  in  Canada). 

It  had  become  clear  that  Canada  would  prosper  more  if 
united  than  in  separate  provinces  jealous  of  each  other.  The 
first  move  in  this  direction  came  from  the  Maritime  Provinces, 
where  the  Irish  element  was  so  much  stronger  than  elsewhere, 
and  when  a  conference  of  the  leading  statesmen  of  these 


226 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


Provinces  was  appointed  to  be  held  at  Charlottetown,  P.  E.  I., 
September  1864,  representatives  of  Upper  and  Lower  Canada 
asked  to  be  allowed  to  be  present  to  bring  forward  a  plan  for 
a  Federation  of  all  the  British  Provinces  in  North  America. 
The  British  North  America  Act  was  passed,  and  received  the 
royal  assent,  the  queen  appointing  July  1,  1867  as  the  formal 
beginning  of  the  Dominion  of  Canada. 

Among  the  men  who  were  most  prominent  in  bringing  about 
federation  and  who  came  to  be  known  as  the  Fathers  of  Con- 
federation were  several  distinguished  Irishmen.  Thomas 
D'Arcy  McGee  was  the  best  known  and  probably  did  more 
than  any  other  Canadian  to  make  the  idea  of  confederation 
popular  by  his  writings  and  speeches.  He  had  come  to  Canada 
as  a  stranger,  edited  a  newspaper  in  Montreal,  and  was  elected 
to  the  Assembly  after  a  brief  residence,  in  spite  of  the  opposi- 
tion cries  of  "Irish  adventurer"  and  "stranger  from  abroad," 
was  subsequently  elected  four  times  by  acclamation,  and  was 
Minister  of  Agriculture  and  Education  and  Canadian  Commis- 
sioner to  the  Paris  Exposition  of  1867.  His  letters  to  the  Earl 
of  Mayo,  pleading  for  the  betterment  of  conditions  in  Ireland, 
were  quoted  by  Gladstone  during  the  Home  Rule  movement  as 
"a  prophetic  voice  from  the  dead  coming  from  beyond  the  At- 
lantic." 

Another  of  the  Fathers  of  Confederation  was  the  Honorable 
Edward  Whalen,  born  in  the  county  Mayo,  who  as  a  young 
man  went  to  Prince  Edward  Island,  where  he  gained  g^eat 
influence  as  a  popular  journalist.  He  was  an  orator  as  well  as 
an  editor,  and  came  to  have  the  confidence  of  the  people  of  the 
island,  and  hence  was  able  to  do  very  much  for  federation. 
A  third  of  the  Fathers  of  Confederation  from  the  Maritime 
Provinces  was  the  Honorable,  afterwards  Sir,  Edward  Kenny, 
who,  when  the  first  Cabinet  of  the  New  Dominion  was  formed, 
was  oflFered  and  accepted  one  of  the  portfolios  in  recognition 
of  the  influence  which  he  had  wielded  for  Canadian  union. 

At  all  times  in  the  history  of  Canada  the  Catholic  hierarchy 
has  been  looked  up  to  as  thoroughly  conservative  factors  for 
the  progress  and  development  of  the  country.  After  the  Irish 
immigration  most  of  the  higher  ecclesiastics  were  Irish  by 
birth  or  descent,  and  they  all  exerted  a  deep  influence  not  only 
on  their  own  people  but  on  their  city  and  province.    One  of 


THE  IRISH  IN  CANADA 


227 


the  Fathers  of  Confederation  was  Archbishop  Connolly,  of 
Halifax,  of  whom  the  most  distinguished  Presbyterian  clergy- 
man of  the  Lower  Provinces  said  the  day  after  his  death:  "I 
feel  that  I  have  not  only  lost  a  friend,  but  as  if  Canada  had 
lost  a  patriot ;  in  all  his  big-hearted  Irish  fashion  he  was  ever 
at  heart,  in  mind,  and  deed,  a  true  Canadian."  Among  his 
colleagues  of  the  hierarchy  were  such  men  as  his  predecessor 
Archbishop  Walsh,  Archbishop  Lynch,  the  first  Metropolitan 
of  Upper  Canada  when  Toronto  was  erected  into  an  arch- 
bishopric, Bishop  Hogan  of  Kingston,  Archbishop  Hannan  of 
Halifax,  Archbishop  Walsh  of  Toronto,  and  Archbishop 
O'Brien  of  Halifax,  all  of  whom  were  esteemed  as  faithful 
Canadians  working  for  the  benefit  of  their  own  people  more 
especially,  but  always  with  the  larger  view  of  good  for  the 
whole  commonwealth  of  Canada. 

The  Irish  continued  to  furnish  great  representative  men  to 
Canada.  The  first  governor,  Guy  Carleton,  was  Irish,  and 
his  subsequent  governor-generalship  as  Lord  Dorchester  did 
much  to  make  Canada  loyal  to  Great  Britain.  During  the 
difficult  times  of  the  Civil  War  in  the  United  States,  Lord 
Monck,  a  Tipperary  man,  was  the  tactful  governor-general, 
"like  other  Irish  Governors  singularly  successful  in  winning 
golden  opinions"  (Davin).  Probably  the  most  popular  and 
influential  of  Canada's  governors-general  was  Lord  Dufferin, 
another  Irishman.  Some  of  the  most  distinguished  of  Cana- 
dian jurists,  editors,  and  politicians  have  been  Irishmen,  and 
Irishmen  have  been  among  her  great  merchants,  contractors, 
and  professional  men.  In  our  own  time  Sir  William  Kingston 
among  the  physicians,  Sir  Charles  Fitzpatrick  among  the  jurists, 
and  Sir  Thomas  George  Shaughnessy  among  the  administra- 
tive financiers  are  fine  types  of  Irish  character. 

RElTEiaSNCEB  I 

Davin:  The  Irishman  in  Canada  (Toronto,  1877)  ;  McGee:  Works; 
Tracy:  The  Tercentenary  History  of  Canada  (New  York,  190S)  ; 
Walsh;  Sir  William  Kingston,  in  the  Amer.  Catholic  Quarterly  (Jan- 
uary, 1911),  Edmund  Bailey  O'Callaghan,  in  the  Records  of  the 
Amer.  Catholic  Historical  Society  (1907);  McKenna :  A  Century  of 
CathoUcity  in  Canada,  in  the  Catholic  World,  rol.  1,  p.  229. 


(15) 


THE  IRISH  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

By  Marion  Mulhall. 


I. — From  the  Spanish  Conquest  to  the  War  op 
Independence. 

SOUTH  AMERICA,  although  comparatively  little  known 
until  recent  times  to  the  outside  world,  contains  much  to 
interest  the  missionary,  the  scientist,  the  historian,  the  traveler, 
and  the  financier.  The  twentieth  century  will  probably  see  hun- 
dreds following  in  the  footsteps  of  their  predecessors.  In  the 
meantime,  the  brilliant  achievements  of  numerous  Irish  met] 
and  women  in  that  part  of  the  world  are  falling  into  oblivion, 
and  call  for  a  friendly  hand  to  collect  the  fragments  of  histor- 
ical lore  connected  with  their  exploits. 
This  paper  will  cover  three  periods: — 

(1)  .  From  the  Spanish  Conquest  to  the  War  of  Independ- 
ence: here  the  principal  actors  were  maritime  explorers,  buc- 
caneers, and  mercantile  adventurers; 

(2)  .  The  War  of  Independence  from  1810  to  1826:  in  this 
period  Irishmen  performed  feats  of  valor  worthy  to  rank 
with  those  in  Greek  or  Roman  history. 

(3)  .  Since  the  Independence;  a  period  of  commercial  and 
industrial  development,  in  which  Irishmen  have  played  a 
foremost  part. 

It  has  been  said  that  George  Barlow,  the  companion  of  Se- 
bastian Cabot,  was  an  Irishman.  Cabot  was  the  first  Britisher 
to  sail  up  the  Rio  de  la  Plata,  and  gave  it  its  name  just  thirty- 
five  years  after  the  discovery  of  America.  Barlow  was  in  the 
service  of  the  king  of  Spain,  and  in  that  country  met  Cabot, 
who  had  been  appointed  Pilot  Major  to  his  Majesty  in  the 
year  1518.  In  1577  we  read  of  the  famous  Admiral  Drake's 
expedition  to  the  River  Plate,  which  he  reached  on  April  14, 
1578.  Evidently  it  was  a  successful  one  in  the  opinion  of 
Queen  Elizabeth,  for  on  Drake's  return  to  Plymouth,  Septem- 
ber 26,  1580,  she  came  aboard  his  ship  and  knighted  him. 
There  seem  to  have  been  three  Irishmen  on  this  expedition, 


TlIi:  IRISH  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 


229 


Fenton,  Merrick,  and  Ward.  Fenton,  who  was  in  command 
of  two  vessels,  was  attacked  by  a  Spanish  squadron  between 
Brazil  and  the  River  Plate,  and  the  battle  continued  by  moon- 
light until  one  of  the  Spaniards  was  sunk.  The  Spanish  his- 
torian adds  that  Fenton  might  have  sunk  another  of  the  ene- 
my's ships,  but  refrained  because  there  were  several  women 
on  board. 

Lozana  in  his  History  mentions  a  revolution  in  Paraguay 
in  1555,  which  was  headed  by  an  Irishman  named  Nicholas 
Colman.  This  revolution  was  quickly  suppressed  by  the  Span- 
ish viceroy,  Yrala,  but  Colman  led  a  second  revolution  in  1570, 
when  Captain  Rigueline  was  governor  of  Guayra.  The  muti- 
neers named  Colman  for  their  chief,  put  their  treasures  into 
canoes,  and  floated  down  the  Parana  until  their  boats  were 
capsized  by  some  rapids,  probably  the  falls  of  Apipe  in  Mis- 
iones.  The  viceroy,  on  hearing  of  the  revolt,  sent  troops  to 
bring  back  the  fugitives,  and  the  latter  were  treated  with 
unusual  clemency.  Lozana  describes  Colman  as  a  daring,  tur- 
bulent buccaneer.  For  fifteen  years  he  seems  to  have  played 
an  important  part  in  Guayra ;  his  subsequent  fate  is  unknown. 

In  1626  an  expedition  commanded  by  James  Purcell,  an 
Irishman,  established  itself  on  the  island  of  Tocujos,  in  the 
mouth  of  the  Amazon. 

Captain  Charles  O'Hara  was  sent  by  Governor  Arana  from 
Montevideo  in  March,  1761,  to  destroy  the  old  landmarks  of 
Rio  Negro  and  Ching  between  the  dominions  of  Portugal  and 
Spain.  The  officer  next  under  him  was  Lieutenant  Charles 
Murphy,  afterwards  governor  of  Paraguay.  This  expedition 
suffered  great  hardships. 

Several  of  the  expeditions  of  the  privateers  of  the  eighteenth 
century  sailed  from  Ireland.  Dampier,  a  skilful  navigator, 
went  on  a  cruise  to  intercept  the  Spanish  galleons  returning 
from  the  River  Plate  with  booty  supposed  to  be  worth 
£600,000  sterling.  He  sailed  from  Kinsale  in  September,  1703, 
with  two  vessels,  and  no  doubt  amongst  the  crews  were  many 
Irishmen.  It  was  on  this  expedition  that  Alexander  Selkirk, 
a  Scotch  sailor,  was  put  on  shore  at  Juan  Fernandez  in  170-1, 
where  he  remained  until  rescued  by  Captain  Rogers,  who  com- 
manded the  Ditke,  a  vessel  of  320  tons,  which  sailed  from 


230 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


Cork  on  September  1,  1708,  touched  by  chance  .it  Juan  Fer- 
nandez, and  found  the  original  of  Defoe's  remarkable  story, 
Robmson  Crusoe,  who  presented  a  wild  appearance  dressed  in 
his  goatskins. 

In  17G5  Captain  Macnamara,  with  two  vessels  called  the 
Lord  Clive  and  the  Ambuscade,  mounting  between  them  104 
guns,  attempted  to  take  Colonia,  in  front  of  Buenos  Ayres, 
from  the  Spaniards.  Having  shelled  the  place  for  four  hours, 
Macnamara  expected  every  moment  to  see  a  white  flag  hoisted, 
when,  by  some  mishap,  the  Lord  Clive  took  fire,  and  2G2  per- 
sons perished.  The  Spaniards  fired  upon  the  poor  fellows  in 
the  water,  only  78  escaping  to  land.  Macnamara  was  seen 
to  sink.  His  sword  was  found  a  few  years  ago  by  a  Colonia 
fisherman,  who  presented  it  to  the  British  consul  at  Monte- 
video. Most  of  the  Irish  names  still  extant  in  the  Argentine 
provinces,  such  as  Sarsfield,  Carrol,  and  Butler,  are  probably 
derived  from  these  captives.  Among  the  descendants  of  the 
survivors  of  Macnamara's  expedition  may  be  mentioned  the 
ablest  lawyer  ever  known  in  Buenos  Ayres  and  for  many  years 
Prime  Minister,  the  late  Dr.  Velez  Sarsfield,  and  also  Governor 
O'Neill. 

The  year  1586  saw  an  expedition  of  a  very  diflFerent  char- 
acter, consisting  of  the  first  Jesuits  sent  to  convert  Paraguay, 
under  the  direction  of  Father  Thomas  Field,  an  Irishman,  and 
son  of  a  Limerick  doctor.  Their  vessel  fell  into  the  hands  of 
English  privateers  off  the  Brazilian  coast,  but  the  sea  rovers 
respected  their  captives,  and  after  sundry  adventures  the  latter 
landed  at  Buenos  Ayres,  whence  they  proceeded  over  land  to 
Cordoba.  The  year  following  they  set  out  for  Paraguay, 
where  Father  Field  and  his  companions  laid  the  foundation  of 
the  Jesuit  commonwealth  of  Misiones,  which  had  such  won- 
derful development  in  the  following  two  centuries  as  to  cause 
Voltaire  to  admit  that  "the  Jesuit  establishment  in  Paraguay 
seems  to  be  the  triumph  of  humanity." 

Another  Irish  Jesuit,  Father  Thaddeus  Ennis,  appears  in 
authority  in  Misiones  shortly  before  the  downfall.  In  1756, 
when  Spain  ceded  San  Miguel  and  other  missioas  to  Portugal, 
Father  Ennis  was  entrusted  with  the  removal  lower  dov/n  to 


THE  IRISH  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 


231 


Parana  of  such  tribes  as  refused  to  become  Portuguese  sub- 
jects. 

Yet  another  Jesuit,  Father  Falkiner,  son  of  an  Irish  Prot- 
estant doctor  in  Manchester,  who  had  himself  studied  medi- 
cine, was  one  of  the  most  successful  travellers  and  mission- 
aries of  the  18th  century.  Among  his  friends  in  London  was 
a  ship-captain  who  traded  from  the  coast  of  Guinea  to  Brazil, 
carrying  slaves  for  the  company  recently  established  by  Queen 
Anne's  patent,  and  he  it  doubtless  was  who  prevailed  on  the 
young  physician  to  try  a  seafaring  life.  In  one  of  his  voyages 
as  ship  surgeon,  from  Guinea  to  Buenos  Ayres,  he  fell  ill  at 
the  latter  port,  and,  there  being  no  hotels,  he  had  the  good 
fortune  to  enjoy  the  hospitality  of  the  Jesuit  superior,  Father 
Mahony,  whose  name  proclaims  his  Irish  nationality.  Such 
was  the  impression  made  on  Falkiner  by  the  kindness  of  the 
Jesuits  that  he  shortly  afterwards  was  received  into  the 
Church  and  entered  as  a  novice  in  the  College  of  St.  Igna- 
tius at  Buenos  Ayres.  He  spent  the  first  years  of  his  mission- 
ary career  in  Misiones  and  Tucuman.  Later  on  he  was 
despatched  by  his  superior  to  Patagonia,  and  his  success  there 
during  27  years  was  almost  equal  to  what  has  already  been 
mentioned  of  Father  Field  in  Paraguay.  He  converted  many 
tribes,  and  traversed  nearly  every  part  of  Patagonia  from  Rio 
Negro  to  Magellan's  Straits,  and  as  far  inland  as  the  Andes. 
He  knew  most  of  the  Indian  tongues,  and  by  his  winning  man- 
ners and  knowledge  of  medicine  gained  a  great  influence  over 
the  savages.  When  he  published  his  life  and  travels,  such  was 
the  effect  of  his  book  upon  the  king  of  Spain  that  he  at  once 
ordered  surveys  and  settlements  to  be  made  along  the  Pata- 
gonian  coast,  which  Father  Falkiner  represented  as  exposed 
to  seizure  by  the  first  adventurer  who  should  land  there. 
Father  Falkiner's  book  has  been  translated  into  French,  Ger- 
man, and  Spanish.  He  returned  to  England  and  died  at 
Spetchly,  Worcestershire,  near  the  end  of  the  18th  century. 

In  1774  the  bishop  of  Ayachucho  was  Dr.  James  O'Phelan, 
who  rebuilt  the  old  Cathedral  of  Pasco.  His  father  was  an 
Irish  officer  in  the  Spanish  army. 


232 


II. — Thr  War  oi^  IndepRndenck. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  ISth  century  the  Pitt  administra- 
tion lent  a  willing  ear  to  a  Venezuelan  patriot,  General 
Miranda,  who  proposed  that  Great  Britain  should  aid  South 
America  to  expel  the  Spanish  rulers  and  set  up  a  number  of 
independent  states.  Spain  being  the  ally  of  France  and  paying 
an  annual  subsidy  to  Napoleon,  it  became  moreover  the  object 
of  England  to  seize  the  treasure-ships  periodically  arriving 
from  the  River  Plate. 

Hostilities  having  broken  out  in  Europe  in  1803,  an  English 
squadron  under  an  Irish  commander.  Captain  Moore,  captured 
in  the  following  year  some  Spanish  galleons  laden  with  treas- 
ure at  the  mouth  of  the  River  Plate.  In  June,  1806,  Major 
General  William  Carr  Beresford  with  a  British  squadron  cast 
anchor  about  twelve  miles  from  Buenos  Ayres,  and  with  a 
force  of  only  1635  men  took  possession  of  that  city  of  60,000 
inhabitants.  The  indignation  which  such  a  humiliation  at 
first  caused  am.ong  the  people  was  in  large  measure  calmed  by 
the  manifesto  which  the  conquering  commander  issued  on  the 
occasion.  In  the  Memoirs  of  General  Belgrano  we  read :  "It 
grieved  me  to  see  my  country  subjugated  in  this  manner,  but 
I  shall  always  admire  the  gallantry  of  the  brave  and  honorable 
Beresford  in  ,J0  daring  an  enterprise.'*  Beresford  was,  how- 
ever, unable  to  hold  his  ground,  for  the  Spaniards  got  together 
an  army  of  10,000  men,  and  re-took  the  city.  Beresford  was 
made  prisoner,  but  after  five  months'  detention  he  and  his 
brother-officers,  among  whom  was  another  Irishman,  Major 
Fahy,  managed  to  escape.  Thus  ended  the  expedition  of  this 
brave  general,  who  nevertheless  had  covered  himself  and  his 
little  army  with  glory,  for  he  held  Buenos  Ayres  as  a  British 
colony  for  45  days,  and  had  he  been  properly  supported  from 
home  the  result  would  in  all  probability  have  been  vastly 
different 

General  Beresford  was  one  of  the  most  distinguished  men 
of  his  time.  He  was  the  illegitimate  son  of  the  Marquis  of 
Waterford,  entered  the  army  at  16,  and  served  in  every  quarter 
of  the  globe.  After  his  defeat  at  Buenos  Ayres  he  captured 
Madeira,  and  was  made  governor  of  that  island.    In  1808  he 


THE  IRISH  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA  t9i 

successfully  covered  the  retreat  of  Sir  John  Moore  to  Corunna, 
a  difficult  feat,  for  which  he  received  a  marshal's  baton,  and 
was  made  commander-in-chief  in  Portugal.  In  1811  he  de- 
feated Marshal  Soult  at  Albuera,  and  subsequently  took  part 
in  the  victories  of  Salamanca  and  Vittoria.  For  these  services 
he  was  made  Duke  of  Elvas,  and  the  British  government  con- 
ferred on  him  in  1814  the  title  of  Baron  Beresford  of  Albuera 
and  Dungannon.  The  same  year  he  was  sent  as  minister  to 
Brazil,  and  on  his  return  was  created  viscount.  He  married 
^  the  widow  of  Thomas  Hope  the  banker,  and  settled  down  on 
his  estates  in  Kent,  where  he  died  in  1854. 

The  brilliancy  of  Beresford's  achievement  in  capturing 
Buenos  Ayres  with  a  handful  of  men  had  dazzled  the  minds 
of  English  statesmen,  who  felt  that  10,000  British  troops  were 
enough  to  subdue  the  whole  of  the  vast  continent  of  South 
America.  In  May,  1807,  an  expedition  comprising  several 
frigates  and  transports  with  5,000  troops  appeared  off  Monte- 
video from  England.  A  month  later  Lieutenant-General 
Whitelock  arrived  with  orders  to  assume  the  chief  command, 
and  among  his  officers  were  the  gallant  Irishmen,  Major 
Vandeleur,  who  commanded  a  wing  of  the  88th  Regiment, 
and  Lieutenant-Colonel  Nugent,  of  the  38th.  Whitelock  en- 
deavored, but  failed,  to  retake  Buenos  Ayres.  During  the. 
siege  a  small  det^^-chment  of  Spanish  troops  under  Colonel 
James  Butler,  after  a  terrific  conflict,  in  which  they  sold  their 
lives  dearly,  were  all  killed.  Agreeably  to  Colonel  Butler's 
request  his  remains  were  buried  on  the  spot  he  had  so  valiantly 
defended,  and  his  tombstone  was  visible  there  until  1818. 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  several  of  the  South  American 
countries,  Mexico,  Peru,  and  Chile,  were  governed  by  viceroys 
of  Irish  birth  in  the  critical  period  preceding  the  Independence, 
although  Spanish  law  forbade  such  office  to  any  but  Spaniards 
born.  It  was  in  recognition  of  gallant  services  in  Spain,  in 
combination  with  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  that  General  O'Don- 
ojhue  was  made  viceroy  of  Mexico  in  1821,  but  the  elevation 
of  the  great  viceroy  of  Peru,  Ambrose  O'Higgins,  was  due 
to  the  splendid  talents  of  administration  already  displayed  by 
him  during  twenty  years  of  service  in  Chile.  He  was  born 
at  Summerhill,  Co.  Meath,  about  1730.   An  uncle  of  his  wa5 


234 


THE  GLORIES  Of  IRELAND 


one  of  the  chaplains  at  the  court  of  Madrid,  and  at  his  expense 
O'Higgins  was  educated  at  a  college  in  Cadiz.  He  then 
entered  the  Spanish  engineer  corps,  and  in  17G9  was  given  the 
command  of  the  commission  sent  to  Chile  to  strengthen  the 
fortifications  of  Valdivia.  He  was  made  captain-general  of 
Chile  in  1788,  was  subsequently  created  marquis  of  Osorno, 
and  in  1796  was  nominated  viceroy  of  Peru,  a  position  which 
he  held  until  his  death  in  1801. 

The  great  viceroy  left  only  one  son,  Bernard  O'Higgins, 
who  succeeded  General  Carreras  in  the  supreme  command  of 
the  patriot  army  against  the  Spaniards  in  1813.  In  1817 
O'Higgins  took  a  principal  part  in  the  victory  of  Chacabuco, 
and  was  almost  immediately  appointed  supreme  director  of 
Chile,  with  dictatorial  powers.  During  his  administration, 
which  lasted  six  years,  he  gave  every  proof  of  his  fitness  for 
the  position.  But,  alas !  it  was  the  misfortune  of  South  Amer- 
ica to  surpass  the  republics  of  antiquity  in  the  ingratitude 
shown  towards  its  greatest  benefactors.  It  is  then  not  sur- 
prising to  find  that  the  Father  of  his  Country,  as  O'Higgins  is 
affectionately  styled,  was  deposed  by  a  military  revolution,  and 
obliged  to  take  refuge  in  Peru,  from  which  country  he  never 
returned.  General  Miller  and  Lord  Cochrane,  in  their  Me- 
moirs, give  frequent  testimony  to  the  honesty  and  zeal  of  Ber- 
nard O'Higgins.  He  was  always  treated  as  an  honored  guest 
in  Lima,  in  which  city  he  died  on  October  21,  1842.  He  left 
a  son,  Demetrio  O'Higgins,  a  wealthy  land-owner,  who  con- 
tributed large  sums  for  the  patriot  army  against  Spain. 

Among  other  Irish  commanders  in  Chile  and  Peru,  who,  dur- 
ing the  War  of  Independence,  fought  their  way  to  dignity 
and  rank,  was  General  MacKenna,  the  hero  of  Membrillar. 
He  was  born  in  1771,  at  Clogher,  Co.  Tyrone;  his  mother  be- 
longed to  the  ancient  Irish  sept  of  O'Reilly,  whose  estates  were 
confiscated  after  the  fall  of  Limerick  in  1691. 

General  Thomond  O'Brien,  who  won  his  spurs  at  the  battle 
of  Chacabuco,  seems  to  have  been  born  in  the  south  of  Ireland 
about  1790.  He  joined  the  army  of  San  Martin,  and  accom- 
panied that  general  through  the  campaigns  of  Chile  and  Peru 
until  the  overthrow  of  the  Spanish  regime  and  the  proclama- 
tion of  San  Martin  as  protector  of  Peru.    On  the  day  (Jttly 


THE  IRISH  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 


235 


28,  1821)  when  independence  was  declared  at  Lima,  the  pro- 
tector took  in  his  hand  the  standard  of  Pizarro  and  said, 
"This  is  my  portion  of  the  trophies."  Then,  taking  the  state 
canopy  of  Pizarro,  a  kind  of  umbrella  always  borne  over  the 
viceroys  in  processions,  he  presented  it  to  General  O'Brien, 
saying,  'This  is  for  the  gallant  comrade  who  fought  so  many 
years  by  my  side  in  the  cause  of  South  America."  The  inscrip- 
tion on  the  canopy,  in  O'Brien's  hand,  says  that  it  was  brought 
to  Peru  on  Pizarro's  second  journey  from  Spain.  Little  did 
the  viceroys  think  that  its  last  owner  would  be  an  Irishman. 

General  O'Connor,  one  of  the  most  distinguished  soldiers  of 
the  War  of  Independence,  played  an  important  part  in  the  final 
victory  of  Ayachucho.  For  his  gallantry  on  that  day  he  was 
promoted  to  the  rank  of  general  by  the  commander-in-chief. 
General  Bolivar.  After  the  War  of  Independence  he  became 
Minister  of  War  in  Bolivia.  General  O'Connor  went  to  South 
America  as  an  ensign  in  the  Irish  Legion  under  General 
Devcreux.  He  claimed  direct  descent  from  Roderic  O'Conor, 
last  king  of  Ireland,  1186. 

Captain  Esmonde  also  fought  in  the  War  of  Independence. 
He  was  brother  to  the  then  baronet,  Sir  Thomas  Esmonde, 
of  Co.  Wexford.  In  later  years  Captain  Esmonde  was  em- 
ployed by  the  Peruvian  government  to  report  on  some  pro- 
posed canals  at  Tarapaca.  The  vessel  in  which  he  embarked 
was  never  more  heard  of. 

Colonel  Charles  Carroll  had  served  in  Spain,  but  joined  the 
Chilian  army  after  independence  was  gained.  He  was  one  of 
the  most  popular  officers  in  the  army,  and  met  with  a  sad  fate. 
Being  sent  with  too  small  a  detachment  against  the  savage 
Indians,  their  commander,  Benavides,  cut  his  forces  in  pieces 
and  murdered  all  the  officers  in  a  most  cruel  manner.  O'Car- 
roll  had  his  tongue  cut  out  and  was  then  butchered. 

Lieutenant  Colonel  Moran,  who  commanded  the  Colombian 
legion  at  the  battle  of  Ayachucho,  probably  came  out  in  the 
legion  of  General  Devereux. 

Colonel  (afterwards  General)  O'Leary  was  first  aide-de- 
camp  to  General  Bolivar,  the  Liberator,  and  received  his  last 
breath.  He  was  nephew  to  the  famous  Father  Arthur 
O'Leary.    Bolivar  employed  him  on  various  missions  of  great 


236 


Tlii;  GLORIES  IRELAND 


trust  and  bays  "he  acquitted  himself  with  great  ability."  After 
the  war,  General  O'Leary  was  appointed  British  charge 
d'affaires  at  Bogota,  and  died  in  Rome  in  18G8.  General 
Arthur  Sandes,  a  native  of  Dublin,  was  entrusted  with  an 
important  garrison  in  Peru  on  the  close  of  the  War  of  Inde- 
pendence. 

Admiral  Brown,  the  distinguished  commander  and  hero  of 
the  War  of  Independence,  whose  exploits  may  be  ranked,  like 
those  of  Nelson,  "above  all  Greek,  above  all  Roman  fame," 
was  born  at  Foxford,  Co.  Mayo,  Ireland,  on  the  22nd  of 
June,  1777.  His  father  emigrated  with  his  family  to 
Pennsylvania.  A  ship  captain  who  was  about  to  sail  from 
Philadelphia  offered  to  take  the  intelligent  Irish  boy  with  him; 
and  the  offer  was  promptly  accepted.  During  twenty  years 
he  seems  to  have  voyaged  to  many  countries ;  at  one  time  we 
find  him  at  Archangel.  Brown  had  been  in  Buenos  Ayres 
just  two  years  when  the  patriot  government  offered  him  com- 
mand of  a  squadron  to  commence  hostilities  against  the  Span- 
ish navy,  then  mistress  of  all  the  coasts  and  waters  of  South 
America.  On  the  memorable  8th  of  March,  1814,  Brown 
sailed  out  of  the  port  of  Buenos  Ayres  with  three  ships  to 
commence  a  campaign,  which  was  destined  to  destroy  the 
Spanish  navy  in  this  part  of  the  waters  of  the  New  World. 
With  him  went  his  fellow-countrymen,  Captains  Seaver  and 
Kearney.  Brown's  next  exploits  were  against  Spanish  ship- 
ping in  the  Pacific,  and  his  entirely  successful  campaign  at  sea 
against  Brazil,  in  which  he  gained  the  mastery  by  his  won- 
derful skill,  courage,  and  perseverance,  keeping  at  bay  the 
great  naval  power  of  that  country  (which  consisted  at  one 
time  of  fifty  war  vessels)  with  his  few,  small,  ill-supplied,  and 
ill-armed  craft.  After  these  great  exploits  Brown  spent  some 
months  among  the  wild  scenery  of  Mayo,  so  dear  to  him  in 
boyhood,  and,  returning  to  Buenos  Ayres,  devoted  himself  to 
the  quiet  life  .of  a  country  gentleman.  He  died  surrounded 
by  his  family  and  friends  on  May  3,  1857,  and  the  day  of  his 
funeral  was  one  of  national  mourning.  His  widow  erected  a 
monument  to  his  memory  in  the  Recoleta  cemetery,  and  in 
1872  the  municipality  of  Buenos  Ayres  granted  a  site  for  a 
jmbHc  statu«  on  the  Pasco  Julio,  which  so  often  rzng  with 


THE  IRISH  IN  vSOUTH  AMERICA 


the  plaudits  of  the  people  as  they  welcomed  this  great  Irish- 
man returning  from  victory. 

No  brighter  pages  occur  in  the  history  of  the  New  World 
than  those  which  commemorate  the  gallantry  and  self-devo- 
tion of  the  Irish  soldiers  who  aided  South  Americans  to  throw 
off  the  yoke  of  Spain.  In  1819  an  Irish  Legion  of  1729  men 
arrived  under  the  command  of  General  Devereux,  a  Wexford 
landowner,  called  the  Lafayette  of  South  America,  to  fight  in 
the  campaign  of  General  Bolivar.  Devereux  was  distinguished 
for  his  great  bravery.  After  the  War  of  Independence  he 
returned  to  Europe,  being  commissioned  to  form  a  company 
for  mining  operations  in  Colombia,  which  country  had  ap- 
pointed him  envoy  extraordinary  to  various  European  courts. 

Colonel  Ferguson  and  Captain  Talbot  were  both  Irishmen 
and  among  the  last  survivors  of  Devereux's  Legion.  It  is 
computed  that  one-third  of  the  Irish  who  came  out  under 
General  Devereux  died  in  hospital.  It  was  this  legion  which 
won  the  decisive  battle  of  Carabobo,  June  26,  1821,  going  into 
action  1100  strong  and  leaving  600  on  that  hard-fought  field. 

Among  the  officers  who  composed  Bolivar's  Albion  Rifles 
we  find  the  Irish  names  of  Pigott,  Tallon,  Peacock,  Phelan, 
O'Connell,  McNamara,  Fetherstonhaugh,  French,  Reynolds, 
Byrne,  and  Haig,  and  the  medical  officer  was  Dr.  O'Reilly. 
We  find  mention  in  General  Millar's  Memoirs  of  Dr.  Moore, 
an  Irishman,  who  attended  Bolivar  in  most  of  his  campaigns 
and  was  devotedly  attached  to  the  person  of  the  Liberator. 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Hughes,  Major  Maurice  Hogan,  Lieuten- 
ant William  Keogh,  Captain  Laurence  McGuire,  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  S.  Collins  also  served  in  the  struggle  for  independence. 

The  period  of  independence  found  a  small  number  of  Irish 
residents  in  Buenos  Ayres,  mostly  patrician  famiHes,  such  as 
Dillon,  MacMurrough,  Murphy,  French,  O'Gorman,  Orr,  But- 
ler, O'Shee,  who  had  been  exiled  or  had  fled  from  Ireland 
and  obtained  the  king  of  Spain's  permission  to  settle  in  Span- 
ish America.  The  descendants  of  these  families  are  now  so 
intermarried  in  the  country  that  they  have  mostly  forgotten 
the  language  and  traditions  of  their  ancestors ;  but  they  occupy 
high  positions  in  political,  legal,  and  commercial  circles. 


238 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


III. — The  Period  After  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 

A  remarkable  influx  of  settlers  from  Ireland  occurred 
between  1825  and  1830,  to  work  in  the  saladeros,  or  salt 
mines,  of  the  Irish  merchants,  Brown,  Dowdall,  and  Arm- 
strong. Previous  to  this  a  few  Irish  mechanics  and  others  had 
come  from  the  United  States.  In  1813  Bernard  Kiernan  came 
from  New  Brunswick.  He  seems  to  have  devoted  himself  to 
science,  as  the  papers  mention  his  discovery  of  a  comet  in 
the  Magellan  clouds  on  March  19,  1830.  His  son,  James 
Kiernan,  became  editor  of  the  government  paper,  Gaceta  Mer- 
cantU,  in  1823,  and  held  this  post  for  twenty  years ;  his  death 
occurred  in  1857.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  first 
Irishman  who  landed  in  Buenos  Ayres  in  the  19th  century, 
exclusive  of  Beresford's  soldiers,  was  James  Coylc,  a  native 
of  Tyrone,  who  came  in  the  Agreahle  in  1807,  and  died  in  1876 
at  the  age  of  86. 

In  1830  some  survivors  of  an  Irish  colony  of  300  persons 
in  Brazil  made  their  way  to  Buenos  Ayres.  They  had  come 
out  from  Europe  in  the  barque  Reward  in  1829. 

The  banker,  Thomas  Armstrong,  who  arrived  in  Buenos 
Ayres  in  1817,  occupied  the  foremost  place  for  half  a  cen- 
tury in  the  commerce  of  that  city.  He  was  of  the  ancient 
family  of  Armstrong  in  the  King's  county,  one  of  whose  mem- 
bers was  General  Sir  John  Armstrong,  founder  of  Woolwich 
arsenal.  Having  married  into  the  wealthy  family  of  Villa- 
nueva  he  became  intimately  connected  with  all  the  leading 
enterprises  of  the  day,  such  as  railways,  banks,  loans,  etc.  He 
took  no  part  in  politics,  but  interested  himself  in  charities  of 
every  kind. 

In  1865  another  Irishman,  James  P.  Cahill,  introduced  into 
Peru  from  the  United  States  the  first  complete  machinery  for 
sugar  growing  and  refining. 

Still  another  Irishman,  Peter  Sheridan,  was  one  of  the 
chief  founders  of  the  sheep  farming  industry  in  Argentina. 
His  family  claimed  descent  from  the  same  stock  in  Co.  Cavan 
as  Richard  BrinsJey  Sheridan,  the  great  statesman  and  dra- 
matist. Sheridan  died  at  the  age  of  52,  in  1844,  and  was  soc- 
cetd«d  in  the  ^stancia  •r  sheep- farming  business  by  his  nqjhew, 


TH£  IRISH  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 


289 


James,  whose  brother  Dr.  Hugh  Sheridan  had  served  under 
Admiral  Brown. 

The  number  and  wealth  of  the  Irish  estancieros,  or  sheep- 
farmers,  in  Argentina  have  never  been  exactly  ascertained, 
but  after  the  old  Spanish  families  they  are  the  most  import- 
ant. It  would  be  impossible  to  give  all  the  Irish  names  to  be 
met  with.  Some  of  them  own  immense  tracts  of  land.  Men 
whose  fathers  arrived  in  Argentina  without  a  shilling  are  to- 
day worth  millions.  Their  estancia  houses  display  all  the 
comforts  of  an  American  or  English  home;  their  hospitality 
is  proverbial;  and  most  of  them  have  built  on  their  land  fine 
schools  and  beautiful  little  chapels,  in  which  the  nearest  Irish 
priest  officiates. 

Many  of  the  partidos  or  districts  of  the  various  provinces 
of  Argentina  may  be  compared  to  Irish  counties,  the  railway 
stations  being  called  after  the  owners  of  the  land  on  which 
they  are  situated.  Among  the  earliest  families  settled  in 
Argentina  in  the  farming  industries,  we  find  Duggans,  Tor- 
neys,  Harringtons,  O'Briens,  Bowlings,  Gaynors,  Murphys, 
Moores,  Dillons,  O'Rorkes,  Kennys,  Raths,  Caseys,  Norrises, 
O'Farrells,  Brownes,  Hams,  Duffys,  Ballestys,  Gahans,  and 
Garaghans. 

Dr.  Santiago  O'Farrell,  son  of  one  of  the  earliest  Irish 
pioneers,  holds  a  foremost  position  among  the  distinguished 
lawyers  of  the  present  day.  An  Irish  engineer,  Mr.  John 
Coghlan,  gave  Buenos  Ayres  its  first  waterworks.  The  Brit- 
ish hospital  has  at  present  for  its  leading  surgeon  a  dis- 
tinguished Irishman,  Dr.  Luke  O'Connor.  A  son  of  Peter 
Sheridan,  educated  in  England,  has  left  the  finest  landscapes 
of  South  America  by  any  artist  born  in  America.  He  died 
at  Buenos  Ayres  in  his  27th  year,  1861.  Among  the  public 
men  of  Irish  descent,  fifty  years  ago,  in  Buenos  Ayres, 
are  to  be  mentioned  the  distinguished  lawyer  and  politician, 
Dalmacio  Vclez  Sarsfield,  and  John  Dillon,  commissioner  of 
immigration.  Dillon  was  the  first  to  start  a  brewery  in 
Buenos  Ayres,  for  which  purpose  he  brought  out  workmen 
and  machinery  from  Europe.  All  of  his  sons  occupied  dis- 
tinguished positions.  Richard  O'Shee,  president  of  the  Cham- 
ber of  Cesimerce  in  Buenos  Ayres,  was  born  at  Seville  of 


240 


THE  GLORIES  OE  IRELAND 


an  old  Irish  family  banished  by  William  III.  Among  the 
many  valuable  citizens  of  Buenos  Ayres  who  perished  dur- 
ing the  cholera  of  1868  was  Dr.  Leslie,  a  native  of  Cavan, 
whose  benevolence  to  the  poor  was  unceasing.  Henry  O'Gor- 
man,  for  some  years  chief  of  police  in  Buenos  Ayres  and 
afterwards  governor  of  the  penitentiary,  was  descended  from 
an  Irish  family  which  went  to  Buenos  Ayres  in  the  eighteenth 
century.  His  brother,  Canon  O'Gorman,  was  one  of  the  dig- 
nitaries of  the  archdiocese,  and  director  of  the  boys'  reform- 
atory. General  Donovan,  son  of  an  Irish  Dr.  Donovan  of 
Buenos  Ayres,  had  command  of  one  of  the  sections  of  the 
new  Indian  frontier. 

The  first  Irish  chaplain  was  Father  Burke,  a  venerable  friar 
mentioned  by  Mr.  Love  in  1820  as  over  70  years  of  age  and 
much  esteemed.  When  Rivadavia  suppressed  the  Orders  in 
1823,  he  allowed  Father  Burke  to  remain  in  the  convent  of 
Santo  Domingo.  After  his  death  the  Irish  residents,  in  1828, 
petitioned  Archbishop  Murray  of  Dublin  for  a  chaplain.  Ac- 
cordingly the  Rev.  Patrick  Moran  was  selected,  and  he  ar- 
rived in  Buenos  Ayres  in  1829.  He  died  in  the  following  year, 
and  was  succeeded  by  the  Rev.  Patrick  O'Gorman  from  Dub- 
lin, who  continued  as  chaplain  during  16  years  till  his  death 
in  1847. 

The  year  1843  is  memorable  for  the  arrival  of  Rev.  An- 
thony Fahy,  with  whose  name  the  advancement  of  the  Irish 
in  Argentina  will  be  forever  identified.  This  great  patriarch 
was  born  at  Loughrea,  Co.  Galway,  in  1804,  and  made  his 
ecclesiastical  studies  at  St.  Clement's  convent  of  Irish  Domin- 
icans at  Rome.  Being  sent  to  the  western  states  of  America, 
he  passed  ten  years  in  Ohio  and  Kentucky,  after  which,  on 
the  invitation  of  the  Irish  community  of  Buenos  Ayres  and 
by  permission  of  the  superior  of  his  Order,  he  came  to  the 
river  Plate  at  a  time  when  the  prospects  of  the  country  and 
of  the  Irish  residents  were  far  from  promising.  The  history 
of  the  Irish  community  since  that  time  is  in  some  measure  a 
recital  of  the  labors  of  Father  Fahy.  He  it  was  who  helped 
his  countrymen  to  choose  and  buy  their  lands  which  now  arc 
of  such  enormous  value.  Their  increasing  numbers  and  pros- 
perity in  the  camp  districts  obliged  him  to  endow  each  of  the 


THE  IRISH  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 


241 


provincial  partidos  was  a  resident  chaplain.  Most  of  these 
clergymen  were  educated  in  Dublin,  and  soon  showed  their 
zeal  not  merely  in  religious,  but  also  in  social  spheres.  Irish 
reading-rooms,  libraries,  and  schools  sprang  up  and  laid  the 
foundation  for  the  refined  Irish  life  of  the  present  day  in  those 
districts.  Among  other  services.  Father  Fahy  founded  the 
Irish  convent,  bringing  out  some  Sisters  of  Mercy  under  Mrs. 
Mary  Evangelist  Fitzpatrick  from  Dublin,  to  whom  he  gave 
it  in  charge.  Father  Fahy  died  in  harness  in  1871  of  yellow 
fever;  he  attended  a  poor  Italian  woman  and  on  returning 
home  was  at  once  taken  ill.  He  lasted  only  three  days  and 
expired  peacefully,  a  martyr  to  his  sacred  calling.  He  died 
so  poor  that  Mr.  Armstrong  had  to  discharge  for  him  some 
small  debts,  and  five  others  of  his  countrymen  paid  his  funeral 
expenses.  A  fitting  memorial  of  the  deceased  priest,  the  Fahy 
College  for  Irish  orphan  boys  in  Argentina,  has  been  erected 
in  Buenos  Ayres,  and  a  magnificent  monument  of  Irish  mar- 
ble, carved  in  Ireland,  also  perpetuates  his  fame. 

The  priests,  still  living,  who  were  co-workers  with  Father 
Fahy  and  appointed  by  him  to  various  partidos,  are  Mon- 
signor  Samuel  O'Reilly,  deservedly  beloved  by  his  parish- 
ioners, and  the  Rev.  Father  Flannery,  whose  appointment  to 
San  Pedro  brought  a  great  influx  of  Irish  farmers  into  that 
district.  Among  those  who  have  gone  to  enjoy  their  eternal 
reward  are  the  brothers.  Rev.  Michael  and  Rev.  John  Leahy,- 
both  of  whom  were  indefatigable  during  the  yellow  fever  in 
Buenos  Ayres.  Rev.  Father  Mulleady,  Rev.  Patrick  Lynch, 
Rev.  James  Curran,  and  Monsignor  Curley  were  also  among 
the  Irish  priests  of  that  time. 

The  Fahy  College  is  entrusted  to  the  care  of  the  Marist 
Brothers,  who  are  largely  Irish.  The  community  of  Holy  Cross 
of  the  Passionist  Fathers,  who  have  as  provincial  the  distin- 
guished North  American  scholar  Father  Fidclis  Kent  Stone, 
is  almost  entirely  composed  of  Irish  and  Irish-Americans. 
They  have  several  establishments  in  various  provinces  of  Ar- 
gentina. Irish  priests  are  to  be  met  with  all  over  the  country. 
In  Patagonia  and  the  Chaco  we  also  find  a  number  of  Prot- 
estant missionaries  sent  out  by  the  Irish  branch  of  the  South 
American  Missionary  Society. 


242 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


Archdeacon  Dillon  succeeded  Father  Fahy  as  Irish  chap- 
lain in  Buenos  Ayres,  and,  although  by  birth  and  education 
an  Irishman,  he  became  one  of  the  principal  dignitaries  of  the 
archdiocese.  He  was  for  some  time  professor  of  theology  in 
the  ecclesiastical  seminary  of  Buenos  Ayres,  and  accompanied 
Archbishop  Escalada  as  theologian  to  the  Vatican  Council  in 
1869.  He  was  the  founder  of  the  Southern  Cross  in  187-i,  the 
Irish  weekly  paper  which  is  now  so  ably  edited  by  the  gifted 
Irishman,  Mr.  Gerald  Foley. 

The  first  daily  paper  to  appear  in  English  in  South  America 
was  the  Standard,  founded  in  1861  by  Michael  G.  Mulhall, 
the  distinguished  statistician,  and  it  is  still  one  of  the  leading 
papers  in  the  country.  In  conducting  it  Michael  G.  Mulhall 
was  joined  by  his  brother,  Edward  T.  Mulhall,  in  1862,  and 
for  many  years  it  was  continuously  under  their  care.  The 
Standard  still  remains  in  the  Mulhall  family,  and  has  for 
its  editor  a  cousin  of  the  former  editor's,  Mr.  John  Mulhall, 
who  wisely  directs  its  course.  The  Argentina,  an  important 
paper  in  Spanish,  w^as  founded  a  few  years  since  by  Edward 
T.  Mulhall,  Jr.,  a  brilliant  son  of  the  late  Edward  Mulhall  of 
the  Standard.  The  H yherno-Argentine  Reviezv,  a  new  Irish 
weekly,  is  edited  by  another  able  Irishman,  James  B.  Sheri- 
dan. In  Rio  Janeiro  the  Anglo-Brazilian  Times  was  founded 
in  1864  by  an  Irishman,  Mr.  Scully,  who  also  wrote  an  im- 
portant book  on  Brazil. 

Ireland  had  also  its  representatives  in  South  American 
diplomacy  and  the  making  of  treaties.  As  early  as  1809  Col- 
onel James  Burke  was  sent  by  Lord  Strangford,  British  min- 
ister at  Rio,  on  a  confidential  mission  to  Buenos  Ayres  to 
negotiate  the  establishment  of  a  separate  kingdom  on  the  river 
Plate,  with  the  Princess  Charlotte  as  queen.  In  1867  Mr. 
Gould,  an  Irishman,  British  charge  d'affaires,  endeavored 
to  mediate  between  the  allies,  Brazil  and  Argentina,  and 
President  Lopez  of  Paraguay,  but  without  success.  Stephen 
H.  Sullivan,  British  charge  d'affaires  for  Chile,  signed  the 
treaty  of  commerce  and  navigation  between  England  and 
Chile  on  the  10th  of  May,  1852.  He  was  afterwards  appointed 
British  minister  at  Lima,  where  he  was  murdered.  The  late 
Chilian  ministers  to  Buenos  Ayres  and  London,  William 
Blest  Gana  and  Albert  Blest  Gana,  were  the  sons  oi  an  Irish 


THK  IRISH  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 


243 


Doctor  Blest  from  Sligo,  who  settled  in  Chile.  In  1859  George 
Fagan  signed  a  treaty  with  General  Guido  for  compensation 
of  losses  to  British  subjects  during  the  civil  wars  after  the 
Independence. 

The  mining  industry  had  among  its  pioneers  brave  sons  of 
Erin.  J.  O.  French  went  to  Buenos  Ayres  in  1826,  and 
after  an  arduous  mountain  journey  arrived  at  the  foot  of  the 
Cerro  Morado,  where  he  found  auriferous  ores.  Chevalier  Ed- 
mond  Temple,  an  Irish  gentleman  who  had  served  in  Spain 
in  a  dragoon  regiment,  also  landed  in  Buenos  Ayres  in  182G, 
and  started  across  the  Pampas,  then  almost  uninhabited,  until 
he  came  to  the  mountainous  country  where  the  Potosi  mines 
were  situated.  In  one  of  the  defiles  he  lost  his  favorite  horse, 
and  in  his  book  he  bids  a  touching  farewell  to  the  friendly 
steed  which  had  shared  with  him  so  many  toils  and  dangers. 
Temple's  successor  in  the  Argentine  mining  provinces  was 
Major  Rickard  Seaver,  a  member  of  an  old  Co.  Dublin  family. 

Several  books  of  travel  in  South  America  have  been  pub- 
lished by  Irish  writers  during  the  last  fifty  years.  MacCann's 
Travels  in  the  Argentine  Provinces,  1846-49,  contains  much 
that  is  valuable  concerning  the  history  and  manners  of  the 
country.  Major  Rickard  Seaver  issued  in  1863  an  interest- 
ing narrative  of  his  crossing  the  Andes.  Consul  Hutchinson, 
an  Irishman,  published  in  1864  his  book  Argentine  Gleanings, 
which  was  followed  by  another  in  1869  called  South  Ameri- 
can Recollections.  Robert  Crawford,  an  Irish  engineer, 
led  an  expedition  from  Buenos  Ayres  in  November,  1871, 
across  the  Indian  Pampas  and  over  the  pass  of  the  Planchon 
in  the  Andes,  to  survey  an  overland  route  to  Chile,  and  sub- 
sequently published  an  interesting  account  of  his  journey. 
The  first  book  printed  and  published  in  English,  in  South 
America,  was  the  Handbook  of  the  River  Plate,  written  by 
Michael  G.  Mulhall  and  published  by  the  Standard,  in  1861. 
The  same  author  also  published  the  Rural  Code  of  Buenos 
Ayres  in  1867,  and  the  Handbook  of  Brazil  in  1877.  In  1871 
he  published  an  account  of  his  travels  among  the  German 
colonies  in  Rio  Grande  do  Sul.  Twenty  years  ago  the  writer 
of  this  sketch  published  Betiveen  the  Amazon  and  the  Andes 
and  the  Story  of  the  Jesuit  Missions  of  Paraguay.  These 
books  derive  special  interest  from  the  fact  that  she  was  the 

1 


244 


THE  GLORIES  0^  IRELAND 


first  foreign  woman  ever  seen  in  Cuyaba,  the  capital  of  Matto 
Grosso,  whither  she  accompanied  her  husband,  2500  miles  from 
either  the  Atlantic  or  the  Pacific  seaboard.  They  arrived  as 
far  as  the  Diamantina  Mountains,  beyond  Cuyaba,  and  saw  the 
little  rivers  which  form  the  sources  of  the  mighty  Amazon. 

Casting  a  glance  over  South  America,  we  see  in  every  coun- 
try and  province  evidences  of  Irish  genius  employed  not  only 
in  fighting  but  in  the  development  of  natural  resources.  To 
quote  Consul  Cowper's  report  to  the  Foreign  Office  in  London : 
"'The  progress  of  Buenos  Ayres  is  mainly  due  to  the  indus- 
trious Irish,  sheep  farmers."  No  other  nationaHty  contributed 
so  largely  to  the  export  trade  of  the  country.  At  one  time 
it  was  shown  by  the  tables  of  Mr.  Duggan  and  other  wool  ex- 
porters that  the  quantity  of  this  staple  industry  yearly  sold  by 
Irishmen  in  Buenos  Ayres  exceeded  that  sold  by  all  other  na- 
tionalities. In  later  years  the  Irish  sheep  farmers  in  the  prov- 
ince of  Buenos  Ayres  have  turned  their  lands  into  wheat  lands, 
and  the  great  industries  of  the  country,  sheep  and  cattle,  have 
been  moved  to  the  outside  camps,  especially  to  that  wonderfuf 
grazing  region  in  the  Andine  valleys  recently  visited  by  Col. 
Roosevelt  and  his  party.  It  may  be  interesting  to  mention  that 
at  the  first  English  races  ever  held  in  South  America,  on  No- 
vember 6,  1826,  the  principal  event,  in  which  ten  horses  ran, 
was  easily  won  by  an  Irish  horse  with  the  appropriate  name  of 
"Shamrock." 

Refebences  : 

Beaumont:  Travels  in  Buenos  Ayres  (1S2S)  ;  Wilson:  Travels  in 
South  America  (1796);  Pinkerton:  Travels  (1S08)  <?  Captain  Wed- 
(lell :  Cape  Horn  and  South  Atlantic  Surveys ;  Major  Gillespie : 
Buenos  Ayres  and  Provinces;  Mrs.  Williams,  on  Humboldt's  Travels 
(1S26)  ;  Captain  Master:  At  Home  with  the  Patagonians  (1891); 
Hadfield:  Notes  of  Travel  in  Brazil  and  La  plata  (1863)  ;  Hinchcliff: 
South  American  Sketches  (1862);  Captain  Burton:  Highlands  of 
Brazil;  Ross  Johnston:  A  Vacation  in  the  Argentine  Alps  (1867); 
MacCann:  Travels  in  the  Argentine  Provinces  (1846-1849)  ;  Hutchin- 
son: Argentine  Gleanings  and  South  American  Recollections;  Major 
Seaver:  Crossing  the  Andes;  Crawford:  Across  the  Pampas;  V. 
MacKenna :  Life  of  O'Higgins ;  Life  of  Diego  Rimagro ;  History  of 
Santiago ;  History  of  Valparaiso :  MacKenna :  Archives  of  Spanish 
America,  50  vols.;  Miller:  Memoirs;  lives  of  Belgrano  and  Sau 
Martin;  Mulhall:  English  in  South  America. 


THE  IRISH  IN  AUSTRALASIA 


By  Brother  Leo,  F.S.C.,  M.A. 

SHOULD  one  be  called  upon  to  give  in  brief  the  history  of 
the  Irish  in  the  land  of  the  Southern  Cross,  he  could  do 
nothing  more  to  the  purpose  than  to  relate  the  story  of  the 
*'Holy  House  of  Australia."  The  episode,  indeed,  is  charac- 
teristic, not  merely  of  the  Irish  in  Australia,  but  of  the  Irish  in 
every  land  and  clime  where  they  have  striven  and  conquered. 

On  the  fourteenth  of  November,  1817,  there  landed  in  Syd- 
ney an  Irish  Cistercian  Father,  Jeremiah  F.  Flynn.  He  had 
heard  in  Rome  of  the  spiritual  destitution  of  the  Irish  Catho- 
lics in  Australia,  and  he  secured  the  permission  of  his  superiors 
to  minister  to  the  needs  of  his  compatriots  in  the  Antipodes. 
Shortly  after  his  arrival  he  celebrated  Mass  in  the  house  of  an 
Irishman  named  William  Davis,  who  had  been  transported  for 
making  pikes  for  the  insurgents  in  the  days  of  '98,  and  then, 
on  the  first  opportunity  that  presented  itself,  he  sought  the 
authorization  of  the  colonial  governor  to  exercise  the  func- 
tions of  his  sacred  ministry.  Far  from  hospitable  was  the  re- 
ception accorded  him  by  Governor  Macquarie.  The  priest  was 
told,  with  the  bluntness  characteristic  of  British  officialdom, 
that  the  presence  of  no  "popish  missionary"  would  be  tolerated 
in  the  settlement,  and  that  the  profession  of  the  Protestant 
form  of  belief  was  obligatory  on  every  person  in  the  penal 
colony. 

With  the  example  of  the  "priesthood  hunted  down  like 
wolves"  before  him,  Father  Flynn  saw  but  one  consistent 
course  to  pursue.  His  fellow  Catholics,  his  fellow  Irishmen, 
were  in  sore  need  of  his  help ;  that  help  they  must  receive,  even 
though  the  civil  powers  refused  their  sanction.  So  for  sev- 
eral months  he  went  about  as  secretly  as  he  could,  hearing  con- 
fessions, offering  the  Holy  Sacrifice,  and  breaking  the  bread 
of  good  counsel.  During  this  trying  period,  Davis  was  his 
host  and  defender  and  friend.  Eventually  the  presence  of 
the  priest  was  detected;  he  was  arrested  and  promptly  sent 
back  to  England.  Before  the  ship  sailed  he  tried  repeatedly 
to  return  to  the  house  of  Davis  where  the  Blessed  Sacrament 


246 


THE  GLORIIiS  0^  IRELAND 


was  preserved  in  a  cedar  clothes-press,  but  the  surveillance 

of  his  captors  was  strict  and  unsleeping.  So  in  the  dwelling 
of  the  convict  Irishman  the  Sacred  Species  remained.  Before 
this  unwonted  repository  Davis  kept  a  light  ever  burning 
day  and  night;  and  day  and  night  crept  the  loyal  Irishmen 
ot  the  settlement  to  kneel  in  prayer  before  the  improvised 
shrine.  The  "Holy  House  of  Australia",  as  the  Davis  dwell- 
ing came  to  be  known,  remained  the  only  Catholic  church  in 
the  colony  until  1821,  when  two  Irish  priests.  Father  John 
Joseph  Therry  of  Cork  and  Father  Philip  Connolly  of  Kildare, 
were  permitted  to  attend  to  the  spiritual  needs  of  the  Irish 
Catholics.  Their  coming  marked  the  beginning  of  religious 
toleration  in  Australia  and  the  termination  of  the  sufferings 
and  sacrifices  of  the  Irish  colonists,  several  of  whom  had  had  to 
pay  dearly  for  their  religious  convictions.  Davis  himself  had 
been  twice  flogged  and  once  imprisoned  for  refusing  to  attend 
Protestant  service. 

Today,  on  the  site  of  the  "Holy  House  of  Australia",  stands 
the  church  of  St.  Patrick.  Davis  gave  the  land  and  the  sum 
of  one  thousand  pounds  to  the  church,  and  his  fellow  exiles 
contributed  according  to  their  means.  This  episode  in  the 
history  of  the  Irish  in  Australia  pays  a  touchingly  eloquent 
tribute  to  the  spirit  of  loyalty  to  God  and  country  which  has 
characterized  the  sons  and  daughters  of  St.  Patrick  everywhere 
whither  their  feet  have  strayed.  It  is  the  spirit  which  has 
embodied  itself  in  the  imposing  cathedral  of  St.  Patrick  in 
Melbourne  and  the  splendidly  equipped  college  of  St.  Patrick 
in  Sydney.  It  is  the  spirit  v/hich  has  made  the  Irish  play  so 
conspicuous  a  role  in  the  civic  and  commercial  history  of  Aus- 
tralasia. 

Originally  known  as  New  Holland,  Australia  became  an 
English  penal  colony  after  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolutionary 
War  in  the  United  States  of  America.  An  Irish  element  came 
into  the  colony  in  the  last  decade  of  the  eighteenth  century 
when,  during  the  Orange  reign  of  terror,  upwards  of  a  thous- 
and people  from  the  west  of  Ireland  were  deported  by  the 
Ulster  magistrates  and  by  Lord  Carhampton,  the  notorious 
"Satanides",  who  was  charged  with  the  pacification  of  Con- 
nacht.    And  during  the  first  three  decades  of  the  nineteenth 


THE  IRISH  IN  AUSTRALASIA 


247 


century  the  stream  of  Irish  transportation  flowed  on.  As  a 
result  of  the  Tithes  agitation,  the  Charter  and  Reform  move- 
ments, the  Combination  Laws  and  the  Corn  Laws,  many  more 
Irishmen  were  forced  across  the  sea.  It  was  not  until  1868 
that  the  convict  system  was  permanently  abolished. 

It  is  difficult  for  us  of  a  later  day  to  realize  the  meaning  of 
that  word,  transportation.  Let  us  form  some  conception  of 
what  the  Irish  exiles  suffered  from  the  graphic  picture  painted 
in  colors,  somber  but  not  untrue,  by  one  who  knew  from  first- 
hand experience  the  lot  of  the  political  prisoner.  Writes  Dr. 
Ullathorne  in  The  Horrors  of  Transportation: 

"Take  any  one  of  you,  my  dear  readers ;  separate  him  from 
his  wife,  from  his  children,  from  all  those  whose  conversation 
makes  life  dear  to  him ;  cast  him  on  the  ends  of  the  earth ;  let 
him  there  fall  amongst  reprobates  who  are  the  last  stain  and 
disgrace  of  our  common  nature;  give  him  those  obscene- 
mouthed  monsters  for  his  constant  companions  and  consolers ; 
let  the  daily  vision  of  their  progress  from  infamy  to  infamy, 
until  the  demon  that  inspires  them  has  exhausted  invention  and 
the  powers  of  nature  together,  be  his  only  example;  house 
him,  at  night,  in  a  bark  hut  on  a  mud  floor,  where  he  has  less 
comfort  than  your  cattle  in  their  stalls;  awake  him  from  the 
troubled  dreams  of  his  wretched  wife  and  outcast  children,  to 
feel  how  far  he  is  from  their  help,  and  take  him  out  at  sun- 
rise ;  work  him  under  a  burning  sun,  and  a  heartless  overseer, 
and  the  threat  of  the  lash  until  the  night  fall ;  give  him  not  a 
penny's  wages  but  sorrow ;  leave  him  no  hope  but  the  same 
dull,  dreary  round  of  endless  drudgery  for  many  years  to 
come ;  let  him  see  no  opening  by  which  to  escape,  but  through 
a  long,  narrow  prospect  of  police  courts,  of  gaols,  of  triangles, 
of  death  cells,  and  of  penal  settlements;  let  him  all  the  while 
be  clothed  in  a  dress  of  shame,  that  shows  to  every  living  soul 
his  degradation ;  and  if  he  dare  to  sell  any  part  of  that  cloth- 
ing, then  flog  him  worse  than  any  dog!  And  thus,  whilst 
severed  from  all  kindness  and  all  love,  whilst  the  stem  harsh 
voice  of  his  task-master  is  grating  in  incessant  jars  within  his 


248 


THE  GLORIES  Of  IRELAND 


ear,  take  a!l  rest  out  of  his  flesh,  and  plant  the  thorn;  take  all 
feeling  out  of  his  heart,  and  leave  the  withered  core;  take 
all  peace  out  of  his  conscience,  and  leave  the  worm  of  re- 
morse ;  and  then  let  any  one  come  and  dare  to  tell  me  that  the 
man  is  happy  because  he  has  bread  and  meat.  Is  it  not  here,  if 
ever  there  was  such  a  case,  where  the  taste  of  bread  is  a  taste 
of  misery,  and  where  to  feed  and  prolong  life  is  to  feed  and 
lengthen  our  sorrow?  And  in  pondering  these  things,  do  not 
those  strong  words  of  Sacred  Scripture  bring  down  their  load 
of  truth  in  heavy  trouble  to  our  thoughts,  that,  'Their  bread 
is  loathsome  to  their  eye,  and  their  meat  unto  their  soul/  " 

But  the  bright  side  of  the  story  of  the  Irish  in  Australia  and 
New  Zealand  unfolds  in  the  subsequent  years.  The  men  who 
had  been  sent  forth  from  Erin  with  the  brand  of  the  convict 
upon  them  became  the  founders  of  a  new  commonwealth.  To 
them  were  joined  the  numerous  voluntary  settlers  who,  at- 
tracted by  the  natural  resources  of  the  island-continent  and 
especially  by  the  gold  discoveries  of  the  fifties,  migrated  to 
Queensland,  Victoria,  and  New  South  Wales.  When  in  1858 
William  E.  Gladstone  sought  to  establish  a  new  colony  to  be 
known  as  North  Australia,  he  opened  a  fresh  field  for  Irish 
initiative.  As  a  result  of  his  effort  there  stands  today,  on  a 
terrace  overlooking  Port  Curtis,  the  city  of  Gladstone,  the 
terminal  of  the  Australian  railway  system.  It  was  here,  ac- 
cording to  Cardinal  Moran,  that  in  1G06,  Mass  w^as  first  cele- 
brated in  Australia,  when  the  Spaniards  sought  shelter  in  the 
"Harbor  of  the  Holy  Cross."  The  first  government  resident 
at  Gladstone  was  Sir  Maurice  Charles  O'Connell,  a  relative 
of  the  great  Liberator;  he  was  four  times  acting-governor 
of  Queensland. 

The  list  of  Irish  pioneer  settlers  in  Australasia  is  a  lengthy 
one.  The  name  of  Thomas  Poynton  stands  out  prominently. 
He  was  a  New  Zealand  pioneer  who  had  married  an  Irish 
girl  in  Sydney.  The  devotion  of  Poynton  and  his  wife  to  the 
faith  of  their  fathers  is  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  he  several 
times  made  the  long  journey  from  his  home  to  Sydney  to  in- 


THE  IRISH  IN  AUSTRALASIA 


249 


terest  the  church  authorities  in  the  wants  of  the  New  Zealand 
Irish  Catholics,  and  that  she  twice  made  the  same  arduous  trip 
to  have  her  children  baptized.  Thomas  Mooney  has  the  dis- 
tinction of  being  the  first  Irish  pioneer  in  Western  Australia ; 
and  yet  another  Irishman,  Cassidy  by  name,  carried  out  a 
policy  of  benevolent  assimilation  by  marrying  the  daughter 
of  a  Maori  chief. 

Among  the  pioneer  ecclesiastics  were  Father  William  Kelly 
of  Melbourne  and  Father  John  McEncroe,  a  native  of  Tip- 
perary  and  a  Maynooth  man,  who  for  thirty  years  and  more 
was  a  prominent  figure  in  the  religious  and  civic  life  of  New 
South  Wales.  Father  John  Brady,  another  pioneer  priest,  be- 
came Bishop  of  Perth.  Irish  names  occupy  a  conspicuous  and 
honored  place  in  the  roster  of  the  Australian  episcopate. 
Notable  on  the  list  are  Bishop  Francis  Murphy  of  Adelaide,  who 
was  born  in  Co.  Meath,  and  Archbishop  Daniel  Murphy  of 
Sydney,  a  native  of  Cork,  the  man  who  delivered  the  eulogy 
on  the  occasion  of  Daniel  O'Connell's  funeral  at  Rome.  But 
scant  reference  can  here  be  made  to  the  illustrious  primate  of 
Australia,  Cardinal  Moran,  archbishop  of  Sydney  from  1884 
to  1911,  who  was  such  a  potent  force  in  the  land  of  his  adoption, 
and  whose  masterly  History  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  Aus- 
tralasia puts  him  in  the  forefront  of  ecclesiastical  historians. 
On  his  death  he  was  succeeded  in  the  see  of  Sydney  by  an- 
other Irishman,  Archbishop  Michael  Kelly  of  Waterford. 
Archbishop  O'Reily  of  Adelaide  is  a  recognized  authority  on 
music,  and  has  written  several  pamphlets  on  that  subject.  A 
Galway  man.  Dr.  T.  J.  Carr,  a  great  educator,  is  now  (1914) 
archbishop  of  Melbourne,  and  a  Clare  man,  Dr.  J.  P.  Clune, 
holds  sway  in  Perth. 

Irishmen  in  Australia  have  figured  largely  in  the  iron  and 
coal  industries,  in  the  irrigation  projects,  in  the  manufacturing 
activities,  and  in  the  working  of  the  gold  mines.  But  they 
have  likewise  distinguished  themselves  in  other  fields  of  en- 
deavor. Prominent  on  the  beadroll  of  Australian  fame  stand 
the  names  of  Sir  Charles  Gavan  Duft'y  (1816-1903),  founder 


250 


THE  GLORIES  OE  IRELAND 


of  the  Nation  newspaper  in  Dublin,  member  of  the  British 
house  of  commons,  and  afterwards  premier  of  Victoria  and 
speaker  of  the  leRfislatlve  assembly,  and  his  sons,  John  Gavan 
Duffy  and  Frank  Gavan  Duffy,  public-spirited  citizens  and 
authorities  on  legal  matters.  The  Currans,  father  and  son,  ac- 
tive in  the  public  life  of  Sydney,  were  afterwards  members  of 
the  British  parliament.  Distinguished  in  the  records  of  the 
Australian  judiciary  are  Judges  Quinlan,  Casey,  Brennan,  and 
O'Dowd.  The  Rev.  J.  Milne  Curran,  F.G.S.,  is  a  geologist 
who  has  achieved  more  than  local  fame.  Other  Irishmen  who 
have  loomed  large  in  Australasian  affairs  are  Daniel  Brophy, 
John  Curnin,  Augustus  Leo  Kenny,  James  Coghlan,  Sir  Pat- 
rick Buckley,  Sir  John  O'Shannessy,  and  Nicholas  Fitzgerald. 
Louis  C.  Brennan,  C.B.,  who  was  born  in  Ireland  in  1852, 
emigrated  to  Australia  when  a  boy  and  while  working  in  a  civil 
engineer's  office  in  Melbourne  conceived  the  idea  of  the  "Bren- 
nan Torpedo",  which  he  afterwards  perfected,  and  then  in 
1897  sold  the  invention  to  the  British  Admiralty  for  £110,000. 
Another  Brennan,  Frank  by  name,  is  president  of  the  Knights 
of  Our  Lady  of  the  Southern  Cross  and  has  been  a  labor 
member  of  the  federal  parliament  since  1911 ;  a  third,  Chris- 
topher John,  is  assistant  lecturer  in  modern  literature  in  the 
University  of  Sydney;  and  a  fourth,  James,  of  the  diocese  of 
Perth,  was  made  a  Knight  of  St.  Silvester  by  Pius  X.  in  1912. 

Young  Australia  and  New  Zealand  may  be  as  the  world  goes, 
but  already  both  have  much  to  their  credit  in  the  domains  of 
music,  art,  and  literature;  and  here,  as  usual,  the  Irish  have 
been  to  the  fore.  In  the  writing  of  poetry,  history,  and  fiction 
the  Celtic  element  has  been  especially  distinguished.  Not  to 
speak  of  the  writers  mentioned  elsewhere  in  this  sketch,  scores 
of  Irish  men  and  women  have  been  identified  with  the  de- 
velopment of  an  Australian  literature  which,  though  delight- 
fully redolent  of  the  land  whence  it  sprang,  nevertheless  pos- 
sesses the  universal  note  which  makes  it  a  truly  human  pro- 
duct. Many  years  ago  one  of  the  most  gifted  of  Irish-Aut- 
tralian  singers,  "Eva"  of  the  Nation,  voiced  a  tentative  plaint: 


THE  IRISH  IN  AUSTRAU^SIA 


251 


"O  barren  land !  O  blank,  bright  sky  1 

Methinks  it  were  a  noble  duty 
To  kindle  in  that  vacant  eye 

The  light  of  spirit-beauty — 
To  fill  with  airy  shapes  divine 

Thy  lonely  plains  and  mountains, 
The  orange  grove,  the  bower  of  vine. 

The  silvery  lakes  and  fountains; 
To  wake  the  voiceless,  silent  air 

To  soft,  melodious  numbers; 
To  raise  thy  lifeless  form  so  fair 

From  those  deep,  spell-bound  slumbers. 
Oh,  whose  shall  be  the  potent  hand 

To  give  that  touch  informing, 
And  make  thee  rise,  O  Southern  Land, 

To  life  and  poesy  warming?" 

Mrs.  O'Doherty  herself,  who  long  lived  in  that  Queensland 
which  she  thus  apostrophized,  helped  in  no  uncertain  way  to 
answer  her  own  question.  So  did  John  Farrell,  the  author  of 
the  truly  remarkable  ''Jubilee  Ode"  of  1897  and  of  a  collection 
of  poems  which  include  the  well  known  "How  He  Died."  And 
so,  long  before,  had  the  non-Catholic  Irishman,  Edward 
O'Shaughnessy,  who  went  to  Australia  as  a  convict,  but  who 
laughed  in  lockstep  and  made  music  with  his  chains. 

James  Francis  Hogan,  author  and  journalist,  was  born  in 
Tipperary  in  1855  and  shortly  afterward  was  brought  by  his 
parents  to  Melbourne  where  he  received  his  education.  On 
his  return  to  Ireland  he  was  elected  to  represent  his  native 
county  in  parliament.  He  is  an  authority  on  Australian  history 
and  in  his  book  on  The  Gladstone  Colony  has  given  us  a  fine 
specimen  of  modern  historical  method.  With  him  must  be 
mentioned  Roderick  Flanagan,  whose  History  of  New  South 
IV ales  appeared  in  18  G2. 

Other  Irish  names  distinguished  in  Australasian  literature 
are  those  of  the  New  Zealand  poet,  Thomas  Bracken ;  Roderick 
Quinn ;  Desmond  Byrne ;  J.  B.  O'Hara ;  the  eccentric  convict- 
writer.  George  "Barrington"  Waldron ;  Victor  J.  Daley ;  Ber- 
nard O'Dowd ;  Edwin  J.  Brady ;  the  Rev.  J.  J.  Malone ;  and 
the  Rev.  W.  Kelly. 

Finally,  the  Irish  in  Australia  have  done  more  than  their 
sbar*  in  th«  work  of  education  and  social  service.  Under 


252 


mt  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


Irish  auspices  several  of  the  Catholic  teaching  congregations, 
including  the  Christian  Brothers  and  the  Presentation  Nuns, 
were  introduced,  and  their  work  has  borne  goodly  fruit.  A 
mighty  power  for  good  is  the  Hibernian  Australasian  Benefit 
Society.  The  organization,  which  was  founded  in  1871,  has 
spread  rapidly  and  has  a  large  active  membership. 

Truly  the  land  of  the  Southern  Cross  is  not  the  dimmest 
jewel  in  the  coronet  of  Ireland's  glories. 

REFEKENCE9  : 

Hogan:  The  Irish  in  Australia  (ISSS),  The  Gladstone  Colony 
(1S9S)  ;  Mennell;  Dictionary  of  Australian  Biography  (1S92)  ; 
Duffy:  Life  in  Two  Hemispheres  (1903);  ^enny:  The  Catholic 
Church  in  Australia  to  the  Year  1S40;  Moran:  History  of  the 
Catholic  Church  in  Australasia  (1S9S)  ;  Davitt :  Life  and  Progress  in 
Australasia  (1S9<^)  ;  Bon  wick:  The  First  Twenty  Years  of  Australia 
(1SS3) ;  Flanagan:  History  of  New  South  Wales  (1S62)  ;  Byrne: 
Australian  Writers  (1S96)  ;  Wilson:  The  Church  in  New  Zealand 
(1910)  ;  Hocken:  A  Bibliography  of  the  Literature  Relating  to  New 
Zealand  (1909). 


THE  IRISH  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA 


By  A.  HiLUARD  Atteridge. 

THE  tide  of  emigration  from  Ireland  has  set  chiefly  towards 
America  and  Australia.  In  South  Africa,  therefore,  the 
Irish  element  among  the  colonists  has  never  been  a  large  one. 
But,  despite  its  comparatively  small  numbers,  it  has  been  an 
important  factor  in  the  life  of  South  Africa.  Here,  as  in  so 
many  other  countries,  it  has  been  the  glory  of  the  sons  of  Erin 
to  be  a  missionary  people.  To  their  coming  is  due  the  very 
existence  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  these  southern  lands. 

When  Dr.  Ullathorne  touched  at  the  Cape  on  his  way  to 
Australia  in  1832,  he  found  at  Cape  Town  "a  single  priest 
for  the  whole  of  South  Africa,"  an  English  Benedictine,  who 
soon  afterwards  returned  to  Europe  in  broken  health.  Few 
Irish  immigrants  had  by  that  time  found  their  way  to  the 
Cape.  They  began  to  arrive  in  numbers  only  after  the  famine 
year. 

The  founder  of  the  Catholic  hierarchy  in  South  Africa  was 
the  Irish  Dominican,  Patrick  R.  Griffith,  who,  in  1837,  was 
sent  to  Cape  Town  by  Gregory  XVI.  as  the  first  Vicar  Apos- 
tolic of  Cape  Colony.  His  successors  at  the  Cape,  Bishops 
Grimley,  Leonard,  and  Rooney,  have  all  been  Irishmen,  and 
nine  in  every  ten  of  their  flock  have  from  the  first  been  Irish 
by  birth  or  descent.  In  the  earlier  years  of  Bishop  Griffith's 
episcopate  there  was  a  large  garrison  in  South  Africa  on  ac- 
count of  the  Kaffir  wars.  Many  of  these  soldiers  were  Irish- 
men. At  Grahamstown  in  1844  the  soldiers  of  an  Irish  regi- 
ment stationed  there  did  most  of  the  work  of  building  St. 
Patrick's  Church,  one  of  the  oldest  Catholic  churches  in  South 
Africa.  They  worked  without  wages  or  reward  of  any  kind, 
purely  out  of  their  devotion  to  their  Faith,  giving  up  most  of 
their  leisure  to  this  voluntary  labor. 

Ten  years  after  Bishop  Griffith's  appointment,  Pius  IX.  sepa- 
rated Natal  and  the  eastern  districts  of  Cape  Colony  from 
Cape  Town,  and  erected  the  Eastern  Vicariate  Apostolic.  Once 
more  an  Irish  prelate  was  the  first  Bishop — Aidan  Devereux, 
who  was  consecrated  by  Bishop  Griffith  at  Cape  Town  in  the 


THE  GLORIES  0^  IRELAND 


Christmas  week  of  1847.  The  great  emigration  from  Ireland 
had  now  begun,  and  a  stream  of  immigrants  was  arriving  at 
the  Cape.  Bishop  Devereux  fixed  his  residence  at  Port  Eliza- 
beth, and  of  his  four  successors  up  to  the  present  day  three 
have  been  Irish.  Bishop  Moran,  who  went  out  to  Port  Eliza- 
beth in  1854,  was  consecrated  at  Carlow  in  Ireland  by  Arch- 
bishop (afterwards  Cardinal)  Cullen.  The  third  Vicar  Apos- 
tolic was  Bishop  Ricards,  and  the  present  bishop  is  another 
Irishman,  Dr.  Hugh  McSherry,  who  received  his  consecration 
from  the  hands  of  Cardinal  Logue  in  St.  Patrick's  Cathedral 
at  Armagh. 

Until  the  discovery  of  the  diamond  deposits  in  what  is  now 
the  Kimberley  district,  some  forty  years  ago,  the  Irish  immi- 
grants had  chiefly  settled  in  the  ports  and  along  the  coast. 
But  among  the  crowds  who  went  to  seek  their  fortunes  at 
the  diamond  fields  were  large  nimibers  of  adventurous  Irish- 
men. The  mission  church  established  at  Kimberley  be- 
came the  centre  of  a  new  bishopric  in  1886,  when  the  Vicariate 
of  Kimberley,  which  for  some  time  included  the  Orange  Free 
State,  was  established,  and  an  Irish  Oblate,  Father  Anthony 
Gaughran,  was  appointed  its  first  bishop.  He  was  succeeded 
hi  1901  by  his  namesake  and  fellow  countryman,  the  present 
Bishop  Matthew  Gaughran. 

The  gold  discoveries  on  the  Witwatersrand  about  Johannes- 
burg produced  another  rush  into  the  interior  in  the  days  after 
the  first  Transvaal  war.  A  great  city  of  foreign  immigrants — 
the  "Uitlanders" — grew  up  rapidly  on  the  upland,  where  a 
few  months  before  there  had  been  only  a  few  scattered  Boer 
farms.  Irishmen  from  Cape  Colony  and  Natal,  from  Ireland 
itself,  and  from  the  United  States  formed  a  large  element  in 
the  local  mining  and  trading  community.  They  were  mostly 
workers.  Few  of  them  found  their  way  into  the  controlling 
financier  class,  which  was  largely  Jewish.  The  Irish  were 
better  out  of  this  circle  of  international  gamblers,  whose  in- 
trigues finally  produced  the  terrible  two  years*  bloodshed  of 
the  great  South  African  war.  Many  engineers  of  the  mines 
were  Irish-Americans.  Huee  consier.ments  of  mining  ma- 
chinery arrived  from  the  United  States,  and  many  of  the 
engineers  who  came  to  fit  it  up  remained  in  the  employ  of  tht 


TTO  IRISH  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA 


255 


raining  companies.  Until  after  the  war,  the  Transvaal  and 
Johannesburg  had  depended  ecclesiastically  on  the  Vicar  Apos- 
tolic of  Natal,  but  in  1904  a  Transvaal  Vicariate  was  erected, 
and  once  more  the  first  bishop  was  an  Irishman,  Dr.  William 
Miller,  O.  M.  I. 

We  have  seen  how  Irish  the  South  African  episcopate  has 
been  from  the  very  outset.  Most  of  the  clergy  belong  to  the 
same  missionary  race,  as  also  do  the  nuns  of  the  various  con- 
vents, and  the  Christian  Brothers,  who  are  in  charge  of  many 
of  the  schools.  Of  the  white  Catholic  population  of  the  vari- 
ous states  of  the  South  African  Union,  the  greater  part  are 
Irish.  There  are  about  25,000  Irish  in  Cape  Colony  in  a  total 
population  of  over  two  millions.  There  are  some  7,000  in 
Natal,  1,500  in  Kimberley,  and  about  2,000  in  the  Orange 
River  Colony.  In  the  Transvaal,  chiefly  in  and  about  Johan- 
nesburg, there  are  some  12,000  Irish.  A  few  thousand  more 
are  to  be  found  scattered  in  Griqualand  and  Rhodesia. 

As  has  been  already  said,  the  total  numbers  are  not  large 
in  proportion  to  that  of  the  population  generally,  and  they 
belong  chiefly  to  the  industrial  and  trading  classes.  The  most 
notable  names  among  them  are  those  of  prelates,  priests,  and 
missionaries,  who  have  founded  and  built  up  the  organization 
of  the  Catholic  Church  in  South  Africa.  But  there  are  some 
names  of  note  also  in  civil  life.  Sir  Michael  Gallwey  was  for 
many  years  Chief  Justice  of  Natal ;  the  Hon.  A.  Wilmot,  who 
has  not  only  held  high  official  posts,  but  has  also  done  much 
to  clear  up  the  early  history  of  South  Africa,  is  Irish  on  the 
mother's  side ;  Mr.  Justice  Shiel  is  a  judge  of  the  Cape  Courts  ; 
Eyre  and  Woodbyrne  are  Irish  names  among  the  makers  of 
Rhodesia ;  and  amongst  those  who  have  done  remarkable  work 
in  official  life  may  also  be  named  Sir  GeofTrcy  Lagden,  Sir 
AVilliam  St.  John  Carr,  and  the  Hon.  John  Daverin.  Lagden 
was  for  many  years  British  Resident  in  Basutoland,  the  Switz- 
erland of  South  Africa,  where  the  native  tribes  are  practically 
independent  under  a  British  protectorate.  Griffith,  the  para- 
mount chief  of  the  Basuto  nation,  has  been  a  Catholic  since 
1911.  Sir  Geoffrey's  tactful  policy  and  wise  counsels  did  much 
to  promote  the  prosperity  of  this  native  state,  and  during  the 


256 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


trying  days  of  the  South  African  War,  he  was  able  to  secure 
the  neutrality  of  the  tribesmen. 

In  the  Boer  wars,  Irishmen  fought  with  distinction  on  both 
sides.  General  Colley,  who  fell  at  Majuba  in  the  first  Boer 
War,  was  a  distinguished  Irish  soldier.  Another  great  Irish- 
man, General  Sir  William  Butler,  has  written  the  story  of 
Colley's  life.  Butler  himself  was  in  command  of  the  troops 
at  the  Cape  before  the  great  war.  If  his  wise  counsels  had 
been  followed  by  the  Government,  the  war  would  undoubtedly 
have  been  avoided.  He  refused  to  have  any  part  in  the  war- 
provoking  policy  of  Rhodes  and  Chamberlain,  and  warned  the 
Home  Government  that  an  attack  on  the  Dutch  republics 
would  be  a  serious  and  perilous  enterprise.  When  the  war 
came,  England  owed  much  to  the  enduring  valor  of  Irish  sol- 
diers and  to  the  leadership  of  Irish  generals.  One  need  only 
name  General  Hart,  of  the  Irish  Brigade;  General  French, 
who  relieved  Kimberley,  and  who  is  now  (1914)  Field-Marshal 
and  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  British  army  in  France;  Gen- 
eral Mahon,  who  raised  the  siege  of  Mafeking;  Colonel  Moore, 
of  the  famous  Connaught  Rangers,  now  (1914)  commandant 
and  chief  military  organizer  of  the  Irish  National  Volunteers ; 
and,  finally.  Lord  Roberts,  who  took  over  the  chief  command 
and  saved  the  situation  after  the  early  disasters.  Lord  Kitch- 
ener, who  acted  as  Roberts's  chief-of-staff,  succeeded  him  in 
the  command,  and  brought  the  war  to  an  end  by  an  honor- 
able treaty  with  the  Boer  leaders,  is  a  native  of  Ireland,  but 
of  English  descent,  and  he  passed  most  of  his  boyhood  in 
Ireland,  in  Co.  Kerry,  where  his  father  had  bought  a  small 
property.  I  used  to  know  an  Irish  Franciscan  lay  brother 
who  told  me  he  had  taught  the  future  soldier  "many  games" 
when  he  was  quite  a  little  fellow. 

Of  the  regiments  which  took  part  in  the  war  none  won  a 
higher  fame  than  the  Munster  and  the  Dublin  Fusiliers  and 
the  Connaught  Rangers.  It  was  in  recognition  of  their  splen- 
did valor  that  the  new  regiment  of  Irish  Guards  was  added 
to  the  British  Army. 

But  the  majority  of  Irishmen  sympathized  with  the  Boer 
republics,  and  many  of  them  fought  under  the  Boer  flag. 
Some  of  these  were  legally  British  subjects,  but  many  were 


THE  IRISH  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA 


257 


naturalized  burghers  of  the  Transvaal,  and  many  more  were 
United  States  citizens,  Irish-Americans  from  the  Rand  gold 
mines.  There  were  two  small  Irish  brigades  under  the  Boer 
flag,  those  of  McBride  and  Lynch  (the  latter  now  a  member 
of  the  British  House  of  Commons),  and  an  engineer  corps 
commanded  by  Colonel  Blake,  an  American.  At  the  first 
battle  before  Ladysmith  it  was  one  of  the  Irish  brigades  that 
kept  the  Boer  guns  in  action,  bringing  up  ammunition  under  a 
rain  of  shellfire.  During  the  Boer  retreat  and  Roberts's  ad- 
vance on  Pretoria,  Blake's  engineers  were  always  with  the 
Boer  rearguard  and  successfully  destroyed  every  mile  of  the 
railway  as  they  went  back.  Blake  had  served  in  the  United 
States  cavalry,  had  learned  mining  while  on  duty  in  Nevada, 
and  had  then  gone  to  seek  his  fortune  at  Johannesburg.  The 
great  leader  of  the  Boer  armies,  now  the  Prime  Minister  of 
the  new  South  Africa  which  has  happily  arisen  out  of  the 
storm  of  war,  has  Irish  connections.  Louis  Botha  lived  be- 
fore the  war  in  the  southeast  Transvaal,  not  far  from  Laings 
Nek,  and  near  neighbors  of  his  were  a  family  of  Irish  settlers 
bearing  the  honored  name  of  Emmet.  The  Emmets  and  the 
Bothas  were  united  by  ties  of  friendship  and  intermarriage, 
and  one  of  the  Emmets  served  with  Louis  Botha  during  the 
war. 

The  Irish  colonists  of  South  Africa  keep  their  love  for  faith 
and  fatherland,  but,  as  in  the  United  States,  they  have  thor- 
oughly and  loyally  thrown  in  their  lot  with  the  new  country 
of  which  they  have  become  citizens.  Few  in  number  though 
they  are,  they  are  an  important  factor  in  the  new  Dominion, 
for  their  national  tradition  inspires  them  with  civic  patriot- 
ism, and  their  religion  gives  them  a  high  standard  of  conduct 
and  puts  before  them,  as  guides  in  the  work  of  life  and  the 
solution  of  the  problems  of  the  day,  the  Christian  principles 
of  justice  and  charity. 

RErEEENCES  : 

Government  Census  Returns,  South  Africa:  Catholic  Directory  for 
British  South  Africa  (Cape  Town,  since  1904)  ;  The  Catholic  Maga- 
zine, Cape  Town;  Wilmot  and  Chase:  History  of  Cape  Colony 
(London,  1S96) ;  Theal :  History  of  South  Africa  (5  vols.,  London, 
18S8-1S93) ;  for  the  war  period,  the  Times  History  of  the  South 
African  War,  and  the  British  Official  History. 


IRISH  LANGUAGE  AND  LETTERS 


By  Douglas  Hydk,  LL.D.,  M.  R.  I.  A. 

THE  Celtic  languages  consist  of  two  divisions,  (a)  the 
Gaelic  or  Irish  division,  and  (b)  the  Kymric  or  Welsh 
division.  Between  them  they  comprise  (a)  Irish,  Scotch- 
Gaelic,  and  Manx,  and  (b)  Welsh,  Armorican,  and  Cornish. 
All  these  languages  are  still  alive  except  Cornish,  which  died 
out  about  a  hundred  years  ago. 

Of  all  these  languages  Irish  is  the  best  preser\'ed,  and  it  is 
possible  to  follow  its  written  literature  back  into  the  past  for 
some  thirteen  hundred  years;  while  much  of  the  most  inter- 
esting matter  has  come  down  to  us  from  pagan  times.  It  has 
left  behind  it  the  longest,  the  most  luminous,  and  the  most 
consecutive  literary  track  of  any  of  the  vernacular  languages 
of  Europe,  except  Greek  alone. 

For  centuries  the  Irish  and  their  language  were  regarded  by 
the  English  as  something  strange  and  foreign  to  Europe.  It 
was  not  recognized  that  they  had  any  relationship  with  the 
Greeks  or  Romans,  the  French,  the  Germans,  or  the  English. 
The  once  well-known  statesman,  Lord  Lyndhurst,  in  the  Brit- 
ish parliament  denounced  the  Irish  as  aliens  in  religion,  in 
blood,  and  in  language.  Bopp,  in  his  great  Comparative  Gram- 
mar, refused  them  recognition  as  Indo-Europeans,  and  Pott 
in  1856  also  denied  their  European  connection.  It  was  left 
for  the  great  Bavarian  scholar,  John  Caspar  Zcuss,  to  prove 
to  the  world  in  his  epoch-making  "Grammatica  Celtica"  (pub- 
lished in  Latin  in  1853)  that  the  Celts  were  really  Indo-Euro- 
pcans,  and  that  their  language  was  of  the  highest  possible 
value  and  interest.  From  that  day  to  the  present  it  is  safe  to 
say  that  the  value  set  upon  the  Irish  language  and  literature 
has  been  steadily  growing  amongst  the  scholars  of  the  world, 
and  that  in  the  domain  of  philology  Old  Irish  now  ranks  close 
to  Sanscrit  for  its  truly  marvellous  and  complicated  scheme  of 
word-forms  and  inflections,  and  its  whole  verbal  system. 

The  exact  place  which  the  Celtic  languages  (of  which  Irish 
is  philologically  far  the  most  important)  hold  in  the  Indo- 
European  group  has  often  been  discussed.   It  is  now  generally 


IRISH  LANGUAGE  AND  LETTERS 


agreed  upon  that,  althcmgh  both  the  Celtic  and  Teutonic  lan- 
guages may  claim  a  certain  kinship  with  each  other  as  being 
both  of  them  Indo-European,  still  the  Celtic  is  much  mor« 
nearly  related  to  the  Greek  and  the  Latin  groups,  •specially 
to  the  Latin. 

All  the  Indo-European  languages  are  more  or  less  related 
to  one  another.  We  Irish  must  acknowledge  a  relationship, 
or  rather  a  very  distant  connecting  tie,  with  English.  But,  to 
trace  this  home,  Irish  must  be  followed  back  to  the  very  oldest 
form  of  its  words,  and  English  must  be  followed  back  to 
Anglo-Saxon  and  when  possible  to  Gothic.  The  hard  mutes 
(p,  t,  c)  of  Celtic  (and,  for  that  matter,  of  Sanscrit,  Zend, 
Greek,  Latin,  Slavonic,  and  Lithuanian)  will  be  represented 
in  Gothic  by  the  corresponding  soft  mutes  (b,  d,  g),  and  the 
soft  mutes  in  Celtic  by  the  corresponding  hard  mutes  in 
Gothic.  Thus  we  find  the  Irish  dia  (god)  in  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  tiw,  the  god  of  war,  whose  name  is  perpetuated  for  all 
time  in  Tiwes-dag,  now  "Tuesday",  and  we  find  the  Irish  dead 
in  the  Anglo-Saxon  "toth",  now  "tooth",  and  so  on.  But  of 
all  the  Indo-European  languages  Old  Irish  possesses  by  far 
the  nearest  affinity  to  Latin,  and  this  is  shown  in  a  great  many 
ways,  not  in  the  vocabulary"  merely,  but  in  the  grammar, 
which  for  philologists  is  of  far  more  importance, — as,  for  ex- 
ample, the  i^-future,  the  passive  in-r,  the  genitive  singular  and 
nominative  plural  of  "o  stems",  etc.  Thus  the  Old  Irish  for 
"man",  nom.  fer,  gen.  fir,  dat.  fiur,  acc.  fer  n — ,  plur.  nom. 
fir,  gen.  fer  n — ,  is  derived  from  the  older  forms  viros,  viri, 
viro,  viron,  nom.  plur.  viri,  gen.  plur.  viron,  which  everyone 
who  knows  Latin  can  see  at  a  glance  correspond  very  closely 
to  the  Latin  inflection*,  vir,  viri,  viro,  virunt,  nom.  plur.  viri^ 
etc 

So  much  for  the  language.  When  did  this  language  begin 
to  be  used  in  literature?  This  question  depends  upon  another — 
When  did  the  Irish  begin  to  have  a  knowledge  of  letters; 
when  did  they  begin  to  commit  their  literature  to  writing ;  and 
whence  did  they  borrow  their  knowledge  of  this  art? 

The  oldest  alphabet  used  in  Ireland  of  which  remains  exist 
appears  to  have  been  the  Ogam,  which  is  found  in  numbers  of 
stone  inscriptions  dating  from  about  the  third  century  of  our 


260 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


era  on.  About  300  such  inscriptions  have  already  been  found, 
most  of  them  in  the  southwest  of  Ireland,  but  some  also  in 
Scotland  and  Wales,  and  even  in  Devon  and  Cornwall. 
Wherever  the  Irish  Gael  planted  a  colony,  he  seems  to  have 
brought  his  Ogam  writing  with  him. 

The  Irishman  who  first  invented  the  Ogam  character  was 
probably  a  pagan  who  obtained  a  knowledge  of  Roman  letters. 
He  brought  back  to  Ireland  his  invention,  or,  as  is  most  likely, 
invented  it  on  Irish  soil.  Indeed,  the  fact  that  no  certain 
trace  of  Ogam  writing  has  been  found  upon  the  European 
continent  indicates  that  the  alphabet  was  invented  in  Ireland 
itself.  An  inscription  at  Killeen  Cormac,  Co.  Kildare,  sur- 
vives which  seems  to  show  that  the  Roman  alphabet  was 
known  in  Ireland  in  pagan  times.  Ogam  is  an  alphabet  suit- 
able enough  for  chiselling  upon  stones,  but  too  cumbrous  for 
the  purposes  of  literature.  For  this  the  Roman  alphabet 
must  have  been  used.  The  Ogam  script  consists  of  a  number 
of  short  lines  straight  or  slanting,  and  drawn  either  below, 
above,  or  through  one  long  stem-line.  This  stem-line  is  gen- 
erally the  sharp  angle  between  two  faces  or  sides  of  a  long 
upright  rectangular  stone.  Thus  four  cuts  to  the  right  of  the 
long  line  stand  for  S;  to  the  left  of  it  they  mean  C;  passing 
through  it,  half  on  one  side  and  half  on  the  other,  they  mean  Z. 
The  device  was  rude,  but  it  was  applied  with  considerable  skill, 
and  it  was  undoubtedly  framed  with  much  ingenuity.  The 
vowels  occurring  most  often  are  also  the  easiest  to  cut,  being 
scarcely  more  than  notches  on  the  edge  of  the  stone.  The 
inscription  generally  contains  the  name  of  the  dead  warrior 
over  whom  the  memorial  was  raised ;  it  usually  begins  on  the 
left  corner  of  the  stone  facing  the  reader  and  is  to  be  read 
upwards,  and  it  is  often  continued  down  on  the  right  hand 
angular  line  as  well. 

The  language  of  the  Ogam  inscriptions  is  very  ancient  and 
nearly  the  same  forms  occur  as  in  what  we  know  of  Old 
Gaulish.  The  language,  in  fact,  seems  to  have  been  an  antique 
survival  even  when  it  was  first  engraved,  in  the  third  or  fourth 
century.  The  word-forms  are  probably  far  older  than  those 
used  in  the  spoken  language  of  the  time.  This  is  a  very  impor- 
tant conclusion,  and  it  must  have  a  far-reaching  bearing  upon 


IRISH  LANGUAGE  AND  LETTERS 


261 


the  history  of  the  earliest  epic  literature.  Because  if  forms  of 
language  much  more  ancient  than  any  that  were  then  current 
were  employed  on  pillar-stones  in  the  third  or  fourth  century, 
it  follows  that  this  obsolescent  language  must  have  survived 
either  in  a  written  or  a  regularly  recited  form.  This  imme- 
diately raises  the  probability  that  the  substance  of  Irish  epic 
literature  (which  was  written  down  on  parchment  in  the  sixth 
or  seventh  century)  really  dates  from  a  period  much  more 
remote,  and  that  all  that  is  purely  pagan  in  it  was  preserved 
for  us  in  the  same  antique  language  as  the  Ogam  inscriptions 
before  it  was  translated  into  what  we  now  call  "Old  Irish." 

The  following  is  the  Ogam  alphabet  as  preserved  on  some 
300  ancient  pillars  and  stones,  in  the  probably  ninth-century 
treatise  in  the  Book  of  Ballymote,  and  elsewhere : 

_j  II     III     III!  mil 

h         d  t  c  q 

b  1  V  s  n 

~i    n    m    im  mr 

/    //  ///  ////  /////_ 

/    //   ///    ////  ///// 

m         g         ng  z  r 

a  o         u  e  i 

There  are  a  great  many  allusions  to  this  Ogam  writing  in 
the  ancient  epics,  especially  in  those  that  are  purely  pagan  in 
form  and  conception,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
knowledge  of  letters  must  have  reached  Ireland  before  the 
island  bec«me  Christianized.  With  the  introduction  of  Chris- 
tianity and  of  Roman  letters,  the  old  Ogam  inscriptions,  whicli 
were  no  doubt  looked  upon  as  flavoring  of  paganism,  quickly 
fell  into  disuse  and  disappeared,  but  some  inscriptions  at  least 
are  as  late  as  the  year  600  or  even  800.  In  the  thoroughly 
pagan  poem.  The  Voyage  of  Bran,  which  such  authorities  as 
Zimmer  and  Kuno  Meyer  both  consider  to  have  been  com- 


263 


THU  GLOKIES  OF  IREl^NO 


mitted  to  parchment  in  the  seventh  century,  we  find  It  stated 

that  Bran  wrote  the  fifty  or  sixty  quatrains  of  the  poem  in 
Ogam.  Cuchulainn  constantly  used  Ogam  writing,  which  he 
cut  upon  wands  and  trees  and  standing  stones  for  Queen 
Medb's  army  to  read,  and  these  were  always  brought  to  his 
friend  Fergus  to  decipher.  Cormac,  king  of  Cashel,  in  his 
glossary  tells  us  that  the  pagan  Irish  used  to  inscribe  the  wand 
they  kept  for  measuring  corpses  and  graves  with  Ogam  charac- 
ters, and  that  it  was  a  source  of  horror  to  anyone  even  to  take 
it  in  his  hand.  St.  Patrick  in  his  Confession,  the  authenticity 
of  which  no  one  doubts,  describes  how  he  dreamt  that  a  man 
from  Ireland  came  to  him  with  innumerable  letters. 

In  Irish  legend  Ogma,  one  of  the  Tuatha  De  Danann  who 
was  skilled  in  dialects  and  poetry,  seems  to  be  credited  with 
the  invention  of  the  Ogam  alphabet,  and  he  probably  was  the 
equivalent  of  the  Gaulish  god  Ogmios,  the  god  of  eloquence,  so 
interestingly  described  by  Lucian. 

We  may  take  it  then  that  the  Irish  pagans  knew  sufficient 
letters  to  hand  down  to  Irish  Christians  the  substance  of  their 
pagan  epics,  sagas,  and  poems.  We  may  take  it  for  granted 
also  that  the  greater  Irish  epics  (purely  pagan  in  character, 
utterly  untouched  in  substance  by  that  Christianity  which  so 
early  conquered  the  country)  really  represent  the  thoughts, 
^  manners,  feelings,  and  customs  of  pagan  Ireland. 

The  effect  of  this  conclusion  must  be  startling  indeed  to 
those  who  know  the  ancient  world  only  through  the  medium 
of  Greek  and  Roman  literature.  To  the  Greek  and  to  his 
admiring  master,  the  Roman,  all  outside  races  were  simply 
barbarians,  at  once  despised,  misinterpreted,  and  misunder- 
stood. We  have  no  possible  means  of  reconstructing  the 
ancient  world  as  it  was  lived  in  by  the  ancestors  of  some  of 
the  leading  races  in  Europe,  the  Gauls,  Spaniards,  Britons,  and 
the  people  of  all  those  countries  which  trace  themselves  back 
to  a  Celtic  ancestry,  because  these  races  have  left  no  literature 
or  records  behind  them,  and  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  who  tell 
us  about  them,  saw  everything  through  the  false  medium  of 
their  own  prejudices.  But  now  since  the  discovery  and  pub- 
lication of  the  Irish  sagas  and  epics,  the  descendants  of  these 
great  races  no  longer  find  it  necessary  to  view  their  own  past 


IRISH  LANGUAGE  AND  LfiTTEBfi 


263 


through  the  colored  and  distorting  glasses  of  the  Greek  or 
the  Roman,  since  there  has  now  opened  for  them,  where  they 
least  expected  to  find  it,  a  window  through  which  they  can 
look  steadily  aihthe  life  of  their  race,  or  of  one  of  its  leading 
offshoots,  in -one  of  its  strongholds,  and  reconstruct  for  them- 
selves with  tolerable  accuracy  the  life  of  their  own  ancestors. 
It  is  impossible  to  overrate  the  importance  of  this  for  the 
history  of  Europe,  because  neither  Teutons  nor  Slavs  have 
preserved  pictures  of  their  own  heroic  past,  dating  from  pagan 
times.  It  is  only  the  Celts,  and  of  these  the  Irish,  who 
have  handed  down  such  pictures  drawn  with  all  the  fond 
intimacy  of  romance,  and  descriptions  which  exhibit  the  life 
of  western  Europeans  at  an  even  earlier  culture-stage  in  the 
evolution  of  humanity  than  do  the  poems  of  Homer. 

This  conclusion,  to  which  a  study  of  the  literature  invites 
us,  falls  in  exactly  with  that  arrived  at  from  purely  archaeo- 
logical sources.  Professor  Ridgeway  of  Cambridge  Univer- 
sity, working  on  archaeological  lines,  expresses  himself  as 
follows:  "From  this  survey  of  the  material  remains  of  the 
la  Tene  period  found  actually  in  Ireland,  and  from  the  striking 
correspondence  between  this  culture  and  that  depicted  in  the 
Tain  B6  Cualnge,  and  from  the  circumstance  that  the  race 
who  arc  represented  in  the  epic  as  possessing  this  form  of 
culture  resemble  in  their  physique  the  tall,  fair-haired,  grey- 
eyed  Celts  of  Britain  and  the  continent,  we  are  justified  in 
inferring  (1)  that  there  was  an  invasion  (or  invasions)  of 
such  peoples  from  Gaul  in  the  centuries  immediately  before 
Christ,  as  is  ascribed  by  the  Irish  traditions,  and  (2)  that  the 
poems  themselves  originally  took  shape  when  the  la  Tine 
culture  was  still  flourishing  in  Ireland.  But  as  this  could 
hardly  have  continued  much  later  than  A.  D.  100,  we  may 
place  the  first  shaping  of  the  poems  not  much  later  than  that 
date  and  possibly  a  century  earlier.** 

This  conclusion  would  make  the  earliest  putting  together  of 
the  Irish  epics  almost  contemporaneous  with  Augustus  Csesar. 

So  much  for  the  history  and  j;rowth  of  Irish  letterii 


264 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


Hefebenccs : 

Brash:  Ogam  inscribed  Monuments  of  the  Gaedhil  (1879)  ;  Mac- 
Alister:  Studies  in  Irish  Epigraphy,  vol.  1  (1897),  vol.  2  (1002),  voL 
3  (1907)  ;  Rhys:  in  Proceedings  of  the  Scottish  Society  of  Antiqua- 
ries (Edinburgh,  1892)  ;  Ridgeway:  Date  of  the  First  Shaping  of  tho 
Cuchulain  Saga  (1905),  in  Proceedings  of  the  British  Academy,  voL 
II ;  Joyce :  Social  History  of  Ancient  Ireland,  vol.  I,  Chap.  2 ;  Preface 
to  fac-simile  edition  of  the  Book  of  Ballymote. 


NATIVE  IRISH  POETRY 


By  Professor  Georges  Dottin. 


[Note. — This  chapter  was  written  in  French  by  M.  Dottin,  who  is 
a  distinguished  professor  and  dean  at  the  University  of  Rennes,  France. 
The  translation  into  EngHsh  has  been  made  by  the  Editors.] 

BY  the  year  1200  of  the  Christian  era,  a  time  at  which  the 
other  national  literatures  of  Europe  were  scarcely  begin- 
ning to  develop,  Ireland  possessed,  and  had  possessed  for  sev- 
eral centuries,  a  Gaelic  poetry,  which  was  either  the  creation 
of  the  soul  of  the  people  or  else  was  the  work  of  the  courtly 
bards.  This  poetry  was  at  first  expressed  in  rhythmical  verses, 
each  containing  a  fixed  number  of  accented  syllables  and 
hemistichs  separated  by  a  pause : 


This  versification,  one  of  the  elements  of  which  was  the 
repetition  of  words  or  sounds  at  regular  intervals,  was  trans- 
fonned  about  the  eighth  century  into  a  more  learned  system. 
Thenceforward  alliteration,  assonance,  rhyme,  and  a  fixed 
number  of  syllables  constituted  the  characteristics  of  Irish 
verse ; 


As  we  see,  the  consonants  in  the  rhyme-words  were  merely 
related:  I,  r,  n,  ng,  m,  dh,  gh,  bh,  mh,  ch,  th,  f  could  rime 
together  just  as  could  gg,  dd,  bb.  Soon  the  poets  did  not 
limit  themselves  to  end-rhymes,  which  ran  the  risk  of  becoming 
monotonous,  but  introduced  also  internal  rhyme,  which  set  up 
what  we  may  call  a  continuous  chain  of  melody: 


Crist  Vim, 
Crist  indium 


Crist  reum,     Crist  in  degaid 
Crist  issum     Crist  uasum 
Crist  dessum     Crist  uasum 


Messe  ocus  Pangur  bAN 
cechtar  nathar  fria  saindAN 
bith  a  menma  sam  fri  seilgg 
mu  menma  cein  im  sainchEiRDD. 


is  aire  caraim  Doire 


ar  a  reidhe  ar  a  ghloiNE 
*s  ar  iomad  a  aingel  fiND 
6  'n  ciND  go  soich  aroiLE. 


TH«  CLOKISS  OF  IRfil^AI^D 


This  harmonious  versification  was  replaced  in  the  seven- 
teenth century  by  a  system  in  which  account  was  no  longer 
taken  of  consonantal  rhyme  or  of  the  number  of  syllables. 

The  rules  of  Irish  verse  have  nothing  in  common  with  clas- 
sical Latin  metres,  which  were  based  on  the  combination  of 
short  and  long  syllables.  In  Low-Latin,  indeed,  we  find  occa- 
sionally alliteration,  rhyme,  and  a  fixed  number  of  syllables, 
but  these  novelties  are  obviously  of  foreign  origin,  and  date 
from  the  time  when  the  Romans  borrowed  them  from  the 
nations  which  they  called  barbarous.  We  cannot  prove  beyond 
yea  or  nay  that  they  are  of  Celtic  origin,  but  it  is  extremely 
probable  that  they  are,  for  it  is  among  the  Celts  both  of  Ireland 
and  of  Wales  that  the  harmonizing  of  vowels  and  of  conso- 
nants has  been  carried  to  the  highest  degree  of  perfection. 

This  learned  art  was  not  acquired  without  long  study.  The 
training  of  a  poet  {file)  lasted  twelve  years,  or  more.  The 
poets  had  a  regular  hierarchy.  The  highest  in  rank,  the 
ollamh,  knew  350  kinds  of  verse  and  could  recite  250  principal 
and  100  secondary  stories.  The  ollamhs  lived  at  the  court  of 
the  kings  and  the  nobles,  who  granted  them  freehold  lands; 
their  persons  and  their  property  were  sacred;  and  they  had 
established  in  Ireland  schools  in  which  the  people  might  learn 
history,  poetry,  and  law.  The  bards  formed  a  numerous  class, 
of  a  rank  inferior  to  the  file;  they  did  not  enjoy  the  same 
honors  and  privileges ;  some  of  them  even  were  slaves ;  accord- 
ing to  their  standing,  different  kinds  of  verse  were  assigned 
to  them  as  a  monopoly. 

The  Danish  invasions  in  the  ninth  century  set  back  for  some 
time  the  development  of  Irish  poetry,  but,  when  the  Irish  had 
driven  the  fierce  and  aggressive  sea-rovers  from  their  country, 
there  was  a  literary  renascence.  This  was  in  turn  checked  by 
the  Anglo-Norman  invasion  in  the  twelfth  century,  and  there- 
after the  art  of  versification  was  no  longer  so  refined  as  it  had 
formerly  been.  Nevertheless,  the  bardic  schools  still  existed 
in  the  seventeenth  century,  more  than  foui;  hundred  years  after 
the  landing  of  Strongbow,  and,  in  them,  students  followed  the 
lectures  of  the  ollamhs  for  six  months  each  year,  or  until  the 
coming  of  spring,  exercising  both  their  talents  for  composition 
and  their  m«nory. 


If  ATIV^  IRISH  P0I:TRY 


267 


A  catalogue  of  Irish  poets,  which  has  recently  been  made 
out,  shows  that  there  were  more  than  a  thousand  of  them.  We 
have  lost  many  of  the  oldest  poems,  but  the  Irish  scribes  often 
modernized  the  texts  which  they  were  copying.  Hence  the 
language  is  not  always  a  sufficient  indication  of  date,  and  it  is 
possible  that,  under  a  comparatively  modern  form,  some  very 
ancient  pieces  may  have  been  preserved.  Even  if  the  poems 
attributed  to  Amergin  do  not  go  back  to  the  tenth  century 
B.  C,  as  has  been  claimed  for  them,  they  are  in  any  case  old 
enough  to  be  archaic,  and  certain  poems  of  the  mythological 
cycle  are  undoubtedly  anterior  to  the  Christian  era. 

We  have  reason  to  believe  that  there  have  been  preserved 
some  genuine  poems  of  Finn  macCumaill  (third  century),  a 
hymn  by  St.  Patrick  (d.  461),  some  greatly  altered  verses  of 
St.  Columcille  (d.  597),  and  certain  hymns  written  by  saints 
who  lived  from  the  seventh  to  the  ninth  century.  The  main 
object  of  the  most  celebrated  of  the  ancient  poets  up  to  the 
end  of  the  twelfth  century  was  to  render  history,  genealogy, 
toponomy,  and  lives  of  saints  readier  of  access  and  easier  to 
retain  by  putting  them  into  verse-form ;  and  it  is  the  names  of 
those  scholars  that  have  been  rescued  from  oblivion,  while 
lyric  poetry,  having  as  its  basis  nothing  more  than  sentiment, 
has  remained  for  the  most  part  anonymous.  After  the  Anglo- 
Norman  invasion,  the  best  poet  seems  to  have  been  Donn- 
chadh  Mor  O'Daly  (d.  1244).  Of  later  date  were  Teig  Mac- 
Daire  (1570-1652),  Teig  Dall  O'Higinn  (d.  1615),  and 
Eochaidh  O'Hussey,  who  belonged  to  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries.  The  new  school,  which  abandoned  the 
old  rules  and  whose  inspiration  is  now  personal,  now  patriotic, 
is  represented  by  caoine  (keens  or  laments),  abran  (hymns), 
or  aislingi  (visions),  composed,  among  others,  by  Geoffrey 
Keating  (d.  c.  1650),  David  O'Bruadair  (c.  1625-1698),  Egan 
O'Rahilly  (c.  1670-c.  1734),  John  MacDonnell  (1691-1754), 
William  O'Heffernan  (fl.  1750),  John  O'Tuomy  (1706-1775), 
and  Andrew  MacGrath  (d.  c.  1790).  The  greatest  of  the 
•ighteenth  century  Irish  poets  was  Owen  Roe  O'Sullivan  (c. 
iy48-1784),  whose  songs  were  sung  everywhere,  and  who,  in 
Ik*  opinion  of  his  editor,  Father  Dinneen,  is  the  literary  glory 


268 


THE  GLORIi:S  OF  IRELAND 


of  his  country  and  deserves  to  be  ranked  among  the  few 
supreme  lyric  poets  of  all  time. 

If,  in  order  to  study  the  subjects  treated  by  the  poets,  we 
lay  aside  didactic  poetry  and  confine  ourselves  to  the  ancient 
poems  from  the  seventh  to  the  eleventh  century,  we  shall  find 
in  the  latter  a  singular  variety.  They  were  at  first  dialogues 
or  monologues,  now  found  incorporated  with  the  sagas,  of 
which  they  may  have  formed  the  original  nucleus.  Thus,  in 
the  Voyage  of  Bran,  we  have  the  account  of  the  Isles  of  the 
Blessed  and  the  discourse  of  the  King  of  the  Sea ;  in  the  Expe- 
dition of  Loegaire  MacCrimihainn,  the  brilliant  description  of 
the  fairy  hosts;  in  The  Death  of  the  Sons  of  Usnech,  the 
touching  farewell  of  Deirdre  to  the  land  of  Scotland  and  her 
lamentation  over  the  dead  bodies  of  the  three  warriors;  and 
in  the  Lay  of  Fothard  Canann,  the  strange  and  thrilling  speech 
of  the  dead  lover,  returning  after  the  battle  to  the  tryst 
appointed  by  his  sweetheart.  Other  poems  seem  never  to  have 
f.gured  in  a  saga,  like  the  Song  of  Crede,  daughter  of  Guaire, 
in  which  she  extols  the  memory  of  her  friend  Dinertach,  and 
the  afifecting  love-scenes  between  Liadin  and  Curithir;  or  like 
the  bardic  songs  designed  to  distribute  praise  or  blame:  the 
funeral  panegyric  on  King  Niall,  in  alternate  verses,  the  song 
of  the  sword  of  Carroll,  and  the  satire  of  MacConglinne 
against  the  monks  of  Cork. 

Religious  poetry  comprised  lyric  fragments,  which  were 
introduced  into  the  lives  of  the  saints  and  there  formed  a  kind 
of  Christian  saga,  or  else  were  based  on  Holy  Writ,  like  the 
Lamentation  of  Eve;  hymns  in  honor  of  the  saints,  like  The 
Hymn  to  St.  Michael,  by  Mael  Isu;  pieces  such  as  the  famous 
Hymn  of  St.  Patrick;  and  philosophic  poems  like  that  keen 
analysis  of  the  flight  of  thought  which  dates  from  the  tenth 
century. 

At  a  time  when  the  poets  of  other  lands  seem  wholly 
engrossed  in  the  recital  of  the  deeds  of  men,  one  of  the  great 
and  constant  distinguishing  marks  of  poetry  in  Ireland,  whether 
we  have  to  do  with  a  short  note  set  down  by  a  scribe  on  the 
margin  of  a  manuscript  or  with  a  religious  or  profane  poem, 
is  a  deep,  personal,  and  intimate  love  of  nature  expressed 
not  by  detailed  description,  but  more  often  by  a  single  pic- 


NATIVE  IRISH  POETRY 


269 


turesque  and  telling  epithet.  Thus  we  have  the  hermit  who 
prays  God  to  give  him  a  hut  in  a  lonely  place  beside  a  clear 
spring  in  the  wood,  with  a  little  lark  to  sing  overhead ;  or  we 
have  Marban,  who,  rich  in  nuts,  crab-apples,  sloes,  water- 
cress, and  honey,  refuses  to  go  back  to  the  court  to  which  the 
king,  his  brother,  presses  him  to  return.  Now,  we  have  the 
description  of  the  summer  scene,  in  which  the  blackbird  sings 
and  the  sun  smiles;  now,  the  song  of  the  sea  and  of  the  wind, 
which  blows  tempestuously  from  the  four  quarters  of  the  sky; 
again,  the  winter  song,  when  the  snow  covers  the  hills,  when 
every  furrow  is  a  streamlet  and  the  wolves  range  restlessly 
abroad,  while  the  birds,  numbed  to  the  heart,  are  silent;  or 
yet  again  the  recluse  in  his  cell,  humorously  comparing  his 
quest  of  ideas  to  the  pursuit  of  the  mice  by  his  pet  cat.  This 
deep  love  of  inanimate  and  animate  things  becomes  individual- 
ized in  those  poems  in  which  every  tree,  every  spring,  every 
bird  is  described  with  its  own  special  features. 

If  we  remember  that  these  original  poems,  which,  before 
the  twelfth  century,  expressed  thoughts  that  were  scarcely 
known  to  the  literature  of  Europe  before  the  eighteenth,  are, 
besides,  clothed  in  the  rich  garb  of  a  subtle  harmony,  what 
admiration,  what  respect,  and  what  love  ought  we  not  to  show 
to  that  ancient  Ireland  which,  in  the  darkest  ages  of  western 
civilization,  not  only  became  the  depositary  of  Latin  knowl- 
edge and  spread  it  over  the  continent,  but  also  had  been  able 
to  create  for  herself  new  artistic  and  poetic  forms ! 

References : 

Hyde:  Love  Songs  of  Connacht  (Dublin,  1893),  Irish  Poetry,  an 
Essay  in  Irish  with  Translation  in  English  and  a  Vocabulary  (Dub- 
lin, 1902),  The  Religious  Songs  of  Connacht  (London,  1906)  ;  Meyer: 
Ancient  Gaelic  Poetry  (Glasgow,  190G),  a  Primer  of  Irish  Metrics 
with  a  Glossary  and  an  Appendix  containing  an  Alphabetical  List 
of  the  Poets  of  Ireland  (Dublin,  1909);  Dottin-Dunn:  The  Gaelic 
Literature  of  Ireland  (Washington,  1906);  Meyer:  Selections  from 
Ancient  Irish  Poetry  (2d  edition,  London,  1913)  ;  Best:  Bibliography 
of  Irish  Philology  and  of  Printed  Irish  Literature  (Dublin,  1913)  ; 
Loth:  La  m<5trique  galloise  (Paris,  1902)  ;  Thurneysen:  Mittelirische 
Verslehren,  Irische  Texte  III.;  Buile  Suibhne  (Dublin,  1910). 


IRISH  HEROIC  SAGAS 


By  Eleanor  Huix. 

IRELAND  has  the  unique  distinction  of  having  presented 
for  mankind  a  full  and  vivid  literary  record  of  a  period 
otherwise,  so  far  as  native  memorials  are  concerned,  clouded  in 
obscurity.  A  few  fragmentary  suggestions,  derived  from 
ancient  stone  monuments  or  from  diggings  in  tumuli  and 
graves,  are  all  that  Gaul  or  Britain  have  to  contribute  to  a 
knowledge  of  that  important  period  just  before  and  just  after 
the  beginning  of  our  era,  when  the  armies  of  Rome  were  over- 
running western  Europe  and  were  brought,  for  the  first  time, 
into  direct  contact  with  the  Celtic  peoples  of  the  West.  Almost 
all  that  we  know  of  the  early  inhabitants  of  these  countries 
comes  to  us  from  the  pens  of  Roman  writers  and  soldiers — 
Poseidonius,  Csesar,  Diodorus,  Tacitus.  We  may  give  these 
observers  credit  for  a  desire  to  oe  fair  to  peoples  they  some- 
times admired  and  often  dreaded,  but  conquerors  are  not 
always  the  best  judges  of  the  races  they  are  engaged  in  sub- 
duing, especially  when  they  are  ignorant  of  their  language, 
unversed  in  their  lore  and  customs,  and  unused  to  their  ways. 
Valuable  as  are  the  reports  of  Roman  authorities,  we  feel  at 
every  point  the  need  of  checking  them  by  native  records;  but 
the  native  records  of  Gaul,  and  in  large  part  also  those  of 
Britain  and  Wales,  have  been  swept  away.  Caesar  is  probably 
right  in  saying  that  the  Druids,  who  were  the  learned  men  of 
their  race  and  day,  committed  nothing  to  writing;  if  they  did, 
v/hatever  they  wrote  has  been  irrecoverably  lost. 

But  Ireland  was  exempt  from  the  sweeping  changes  brought 
about  through  long  periods  of  Roman  and  Saxon  occupation; 
no  great  upheaval  from  without  disturbed  the  native  political 
and  social  conditions  up  to  the  coming  of  the  Norse  and 
Danes  about  the  beginning  of  the  ninth  century.  Agricola, 
standing  on  the  western  coast  of  Britain,  looked  across  the 
dividing  channel,  and  reflected  upon  "the  beneficial  connection 
that  the  conquest  of  Ireland  would  have  formed  between  the 
most  powerful  parts  of  the  Roman  Empire.'Vbut,  fortunately 
for  the  literature  of  Irtland,  if  not  for  h#r  history,  h«  B«v«r 


IRISH  HEROIC  SAGAS 


271 


came  The  early  incursions  of  the  Scotti  or  Irish  were  east- 
ward into  England,  Wales,  and  Gaul,  and  there  seem  to  have 
been  few  return  movements  towards  the  west.  Ireland  pur- 
sued her  path  of  native  development  undisturbed.  It  is  to 
this  circumstance  that  she  owes  the  preservation  of  so  much 
of  her  native  literature,  a  great  body  of  material,  historical, 
religious,  poetic,  romantic,  showing  marks  of  having  originated 
at  a  very  early  time,  and  of  great  variety  and  interest. 

At  what  period  this  literature  first  began  to  be  written 
down  we  do  not  know.  Orosius  tells  us  that  a  traveler  named 
Aethicus  spent  a  considerable  time  in  Ireland  early  in  the  fifth 
century  "examining  their  volumes",  which  tends  to  prove  that 
tliere  was  writing  in  Ireland  before  St.  Patrick.  But  the 
native  bard  must  have  made  writing  superfluous.  The  man 
who  could,  at  a  moment's  notice,  recite  any  one  out  of  the  350 
stories  which  might  be  called  for,  besides  poetry,  genealogies, 
and  tribal  records,  was  worth  many  books.  Only  a  few  were 
expert  enough  to  read  his  writings,  but  all  could  enjoy  his 
tales. 

The  earliest  written  records  that  we  have  now  existing  date 
from  the  seventh  or  eighth  ceatury;  but  undoubtedly  there 
is  preserved  for  us,  in  these  materials,  a  picture  of  social  con- 
ditions going  back  to  the  very  beginning  of  our  era,  and  coeval 
with  the  stage  of  civilization  known  in  archaeology  as  La 
nne  or  "Late  Celtic". 

To  help  his  memory  the  early  "shanachie"  or  story-teller 
grouped  his  romantic  story-store  under  different  heads,  such 
as  "Tains"  or  Cattle-spoils,  Feasts,  Elopements,  Sieges,  Bat- 
tles, Destructions,  Tragical  Deaths ;  but  it  is  easier  for  us  now 
to  group  them  in  another  way,  and  to  class  together  the  series 
of  tales  referring  to  the  Tuatha  De  Danann  or  ancient  deities, 
tliose  belonging  to  the  Red  Branch  cycle  of  King  Conchobar 
and  Cuchulainn,  those  relating  to  Finn,  and  the  Legends  of 
the  Kings.  The  hundred  or  more  tales  belonging  to  the  second 
group  are  especially  valuable  for  social  history  on  account  of 
the  detailed  descriptions  they  give  of  customs,  dress,  weapons, 
habits  of  life,  and  ethical  ideas.  To  the  historian,  folklorist, 
and  student  of  primitive  civilizations  they  arc  documents  of 
the  highest  importance, 


272 


THE  GLORIES  IRELAND 


It  seems  likely  that  the  Red  Branch  cycle  of  tales,  including 
tlie  epic  tale  of  the  Tain  or  Cattle-spoil  of  Cualnge,  which 
has  gathered  round  itself  a  number  of  minor  tales,  had  some 
basis  of  historical  fact,  and  arose  in  the  period  of  Ulster's  pre- 
dominance to  celebrate  the  deeds  of  a  band  of  warlike  cham- 
pions who  flourished  in  the  north  about  the  beginning  of  the 
Christian  era.  No  one  who  has  visited  the  raths  of  Emain 
Macha,  near  Armagh,  where  stood  the  traditional  site  of  the 
ancient  capital  of  Ulster,  or  has  followed  the  well-defined  and 
massive  outworks  of  Rath  Celtchair  and  the  forts  of  the  other 
heroes  whose  deeds  the  tales  embody,  could  doubt  that  they 
had  their  origin  in  great  events  that  once  happened  there.  The 
topography  of  the  tales  is  absolutely  correct.  Or  again,  when 
we  cross  over  into  Connacht,  the  remains  at  Rath  Croghan, 
near  the  ancient  palace  of  the  Amazonian  queen,  Medb,  tes- 
tify to  similar  events.  She  it  was  who  in  her  "Pillow  Talk" 
with  her  husband  Ailill  declared  that  she  had  married  him  only 
because  in  him  did  she  find  the  "strange  bride-gift"  which  her 
imperious  nature  demanded,  "a  man  without  stinginess,  with- 
out jealousy,  without  fear."  It  was  in  her  desire  to  surpass 
her  husband  in  wealth  that  she  sent  the  combined  armies  of  the 
south  and  west  into  Ulster  to  carry  off  a  famous  bull,  the 
Brown  Bull  of  Cooley,  the  only  match  in  Ireland  for  one  pos- 
sessed by  her  spouse.  This  raid  forms  the  central  subject  of 
the  Tain  Bo  Cualnge.  The  motif  of  the  tale  and  the  kind  of 
life  described  in  it  alike  show  the  primitive  conditions  out 
of  which  it  had  its  rise.  It  belongs  to  a  time  when  land  was 
plenty  for  the  scattered  inhabitants  to  dwell  upon,  but  stock 
to  place  upon  it  was  scarce.  The  possession  of  herds  was  nec- 
.  essary,  not  only  for  food  and  the  provisioning  of  troops,  but  as 
X  standard  of  wealth,  a  proof  of  position,  and  a  means  of  ex- 
change. Everything  was  estimated,  before  the  use  of  money,  by 
its  value  in  kine  or  herds.  When  Medb  and  Ailill  compare 
their  possessions,  to  find  out  which  of  them  is  better  than  the 
other,  their  herds  of  cattle,  swine,  and  horses  are  driven  in, 
their  ornaments  and  jewels,  their  garments  and  vats  and  house- 
hold appliances  are  displayed.  The  pursuit  of  the  cattle  of 
neighboring  tribes  was  the  prime  cause  of  the  innumerable 
raids  which  made  every  man's  life  one  of  perpetual  war- 


IRISH  HEROIC  SAGAS 


fare,  much  more  so  than  the  acquisition  of  land  or  the  aveng- 
ing of  wrongs.  Hence  a  motif  that  may  seem  to  us  insufficient 
and  remote  as  the  subject  of  a  great  epic  arose  out  of  the 
necessities  of  actual  life.  Cattle-driving  is  the  oldest  of  all 
occupations  in  Ireland. 

The  conditions  we  find  described  in  these  tales  show  us  an 
open  country,  generally  unenclosed  by  hedges  or  walls.  The 
chariots  can  drive  straight  across  the  province.  There  are  no 
towns,  and  the  stopping  places  are  the  large  farmers'  dwell- 
ings, open  inns  known  as  "houses  of  hospitality",  fortified  by 
surrounding  raths  or  earthen  walls,  the  only  private  property 
in  land,  in  a  time  when  the  tribe-land  was  common,  that  we 
hear  of  at  this  period.  Within  these  borders  lay  the  pleasure 
grounds  and  gardens  and  the  cattle-sheds  for  the  herds,  which 
the  great  landowner  or  chief  loaned  out  to  the  smaller  men 
in  return  for  services  rendered.  Here  were  trained  in  arts  of 
industry  and  fine  needlework  the  daughters  of  the  chief  men  of 
the  tribe  and  their  foster-sisters,  drawn  from  the  humbler 
families  around  them.  The  rivers  as  a  rule  formed  the  bounda- 
ries of  the  provinces,  and  the  fords  were  constantly  guarded  by 
champions  who  challenged  every  wayfarer  to  single  combat, 
if  he  could  not  show  sufficient  reason  for  crossing  the  border- 
land. These  combats  were  fought  actually  in  the  ford  itself, 
and  all  wars  began  in  a  long  series  of  single  hand-to-hand  com- 
bats between  equal  champions  before  the  armies  as  a  whole 
engaged  each  other. 

To  fight  was  every  man's  prime  duty,  and  the  man  who  had 
slain  the  largest  number  of  his  fellows  was  acclaimed  as  the 
greatest  hero.  It  was  the  proud  boast  of  Conall  Cernach,  "the 
Victorious",  that  seldom  had  a  day  passed  in  which  he  had 
not  challenged  a  Connachtman,  and  few  nights  in  which  a  Con- 
nachtman's  head  had  not  formed  his  pillow.  It  shows  the 
primitive  savagery  of  the  period  that  skulls  of  enemies  were 
worn  dangling  from  the  belt,  and  were  stored  up  in  one  of 
the  palaces  of  Emain  Macha  as  trophies  of  valor.  So  war- 
like were  the  heroes  that  even  during  friendly  feasts  their 
weapons  had  to  be  hung  up  in  a  separate  house,  lest  they 
should  spring  to  arms  in  rivalry  with  their  own  fellows. 


t 


THE  GLORI£S  OF  IRELAND 


Yet  hi  spite  of  this  rud€  barbarism  of  outward  life,  the  war- 
riors had  formed  for  themselves  a  high  and  exacting  code  cf 
honor,  which  may  be  regarded  as  the  first  steps  toward  what 
in  later  times  and  other  countries  became  known  as  "chivalry" ; 
save  that  there  is  in  the  acts  of  the  Irish  heroes  a  simplicity 
and  sincerity  v/hich  puts  them  on  a  higher  level  than  the 
obligatory  courtesies  of  more  artificial  ages.  Generosity  be- 
tween enemies  was  carried  to  an  extraordinary  pitch.  Twice 
over  in  fights  with  different  foes,  Conall  Cernach  binds  his 
right  hand  to  his  side  in  order  that  his  enemy,  who  had  lost 
one  hand,  may  fight  on  equal  terms  with  him.  The  two 
severest  combats  sustained  by  Cuchulainn,  the  youthful  Ulster 
champion,  in  the  long  war  of  the  Tain  are  those  with  Loch  the 
Great  and  Ferdiad,  both  first-rate  warriors,  who  had  been 
forced  by  the  wiles  of  Medb  into  unwilling  conflict  against 
their  young  antagonist.  In  their  youth  they  had  been  fellow- 
pupils  in  the  school  of  the  Amazon  Scathach,  who  had  taught 
them  both  alike  the  arts  of  war.  When  Loch  the  Great,  as  a 
dying  request,  prays  Cuchulainn  to  permit  him  to  rise,  "so  that 
he  may  fall  on  his  face  and  not  backwards  towards  the  men  of 
Erin,"  lest  hereafter  it  should  be  said  that  he  fell  in  flight, 
Cuchulainn  replies:  "That  will  I  surely,  for  it  is  a  warrior's 
boon  thou  cravest,"  and  he  steps  back  to  allow  the  wounded 
man  to  reverse  his  position  in  the  ford.  The  tale  of  Cuchu- 
lainn's  combat  with  Ferdiad  has  become  classic ;  nothing  more 
pathetic  or  more  full  of  the  true  spirit  of  chivalr}'  is  to  be 
found  in  any  literature.  Each  v/arrior  estimates  nobly  the 
prowess  of  the  other,  each  sorrowfully  recalls  the  memory  of 
old  friendships  and  expeditions  made  together.  When  Ferdiad 
falls,  his  ancient  comrade  pours  out  over  him  a  passionate 
lament  Each  night,  when  the  day's  combat  is  over,  they 
throw  their  arms  round  each  other's  neck  and  embrace.  Their 
horses  are  put  up  in  the  sam.e  paddock  and  their  charioteers 
sleep  beside  the  same  fire ;  each  night  Cuchulainn  sends  to  his 
wounded  friend  a  share  of  the  herbs  that  are  applied  to  his 
ovm  woundt,  while  to  Cuchulainn  Ferdiad  sends  a  fair  half  of 
the  pleasant  delicate  food  supplied  to  him  by  the  men  of  Erin. 
We  may  recall,  too,  Cuchulainn's  act  of  compassion  towards 
Queen  Medb  near  the  close  of  the  Tain.    Her  array  is  flying 


IRISH  HEROIC  SAGAS 


275 


in  rout  homeward  across  the  Shannon,  closely  pursued  by 
Cuchulainn.  As  he  approaches  the  ford  he  finds  Queen  Medb 
lying  prostrate  on  the  bank,  unable  any  longer  to  guard  the 
retreat  of  her  army.  She  appeals  to  her  enemy  to  aid  her; 
and  Cuchulainn,  with  that  lovable  boyish  delight  in  acts  of 
supreme  generosity  which  is  always  ascribed  to  him,  under- 
takes to  shield  the  retreat  of  the  disordered  host  from  his  own 
troops  and  to  see  them  safely  across  the  river,  while  Medb 
reposes  peacefully  in  a  field  hard  by.  The  spirit  which  actu- 
ates the  heroes  is  well  expressed  by  Cuchulainn  when  his 
friends  would  restrain  him  from  going  forth  to  his  last  fight, 
knowing  that  in  that  battle  he  must  fall :  "I  had  rather  than  the 
whole  world's  gold  and  than  the  earth's  riches  that  death  had 
ere  now  befallen  me,  so  would  not  this  shame  and  testimony 
of  reproach  now  stand  recorded  against  me;  for  in  every 
tongue  this  noble  old  saying  is  remembered,  'Fame  outlives 
life/  " 

The  Irish  tales  surpass  those  of  the  Arthurian  cycle  in  sim- 
plicity, in  humor,  and  in  human  interest;  the  characters  are 
not  mere  types  of  fixed  virtues  and  vices,  they  have  each  a 
strongly  marked  individuality,  consistently  adhered  to  through 
the  multitude  of  different  stories  in  which  they  play  a  part. 
This  is  especially  the  case  with  regard  to  the  female  charac- 
ters. Emer,  Deirdre,  Etain,  Grainne  may  be  said  to  have 
introduced  into  European  literature  new  types  of  womanhood, 
quite  unlike,  in  their  sprightliness  and  humor,  their  passionate 
affection  and  heroic  qualities,  to  anything  found  elsewhere. 
Stories  about  women  play  a  large  part  in  ancient  Irish  litera- 
ture ;  their  elopements,  their  marriages,  their  griefs  and  trage- 
dies, form  the  subject  of  a  large  number  of  tales.  Among  the 
list  of  tales  that  any  bard  might  be  called  upon  to  recite,  the 
"Courtships"  or  "Wooings"  probably  formed  a  favorite  group ; 
they  are  of  great  variety  and  beauty.  The  Irish,  indeed,  may 
be  called  the  inventors  of  the  love-tale  for  modern  Europe. 

The  gravest  defect  of  this  literature  (a  defect  which  is  com- 
mon to  all  early  literature  before  coming  under  the  chastening 
hand  of  the  master)  is  undoubtedly  its  tendency  to  extrava- 
gance; though  much  depended  upon  the  individual  writer, 
some  being  stylists  and  some  not,  all  were  prone  to  frequent 


(19) 


276 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


and  grotesque  exaggerations.  The  lack  of  restraint  and  self- 
criticism  is  everywhere  apparent;  the  old  Irish  writer  seems 
incapable  of  judging  how  to  shape  his  material  with  a  view  to 
presenting  it  in  its  best  form.  Thus,  we  have  the  feeling,  even 
with  regard  to  the  Tain  Bo  Cualnge,  that  what  has  come  down 
to  us  is  rather  the  rough-shaped  material  of  an  epic  than  a 
completed  design.  The  single  stories  and  the  groups  of  stories 
have  been  handled  and  rehandled  at  different  times,  but  only 
occasionally,  as  in  the  Story  of  Deirdre  (the  "Sorrowful  Tale 
of  the  Sons  of  Usnech"),  or  in  the  later  versions  of  the  "Woo- 
ing of  Emer",  or  the  Book  of  Leinster  version  of  the  "Woo- 
ing of  Ferb",  do  we  feel  that  a  competent  artist  has  so  formed 
his  story  that  the  best  possible  value  has  been  extracted  from  it. 
Yet,  in  spite  of  their  defects,  the  old  heroic  sagas  of  Ireland 
have  in  them  a  stimulating  force  and  energy,  and  an  element 
of  fine  and  healthy  optimism,  which  is  strangely  at  variance 
with  the  popular  conception  of  the  melancholy  of  Irish  litera- 
ture, and  which,  wherever  they  are  known,  make  them  the 
fountain-head  of  a  fresh  creative  inspiration.  This  stimulating 
of  the  imagination  is  perhaps  the  best  gift  that  a  revived  inter- 
est in  the  old  native  romance  of  Ireland  has  to  bestow. 


References : 

The  originals  of  many  of  the  Tales  of  the  Cuchulainn  cycle  of 
romances  will  be  found,  usually  accompanied  by  English  or  German 
translations,  in  the  volumes  of  Irische  Texte;  Revue  Celtique: 
Zeitschrift  fiir  Celt.  Phil.;  Eriu;  Irish  Texts  Society,  vol.  II ;  Atlantis; 
Proceed,  of  the  R.  Irish  Academy  (Irish  MSS.  Series  and  Todd  Lec- 
ture Series).  English  translations:  of  the  Tain  Bo  Cualnge  (LU.  and 
Y.B.L.  versions),  by  Miss  Winifred  Faraday  (1904)  ;  (LL.  ver- 
sion with  conflate  readings),  by  Joseph  Dunn  (1914)  ;  of  various 
stories:  E.  Hull,  The  Cuchulain  Saga  in  Irish  Literature  (189S)  ; 
A.  H.  Leahy,  Heroic  Romances  of  Ireland  (1905-6),  the  Courtship 
of  Ferb  (1902).  French  translations  in  Arbois  de  Jubainville's 
Epopee  celtique  en  Irlande;  German  translations  in  Thumeysen's 
Sagen  aus  dem  alt  en  Irland  (1901)  ;  free  rendering  by  S.  O'Grady 
in  The  Coming  of  Cuchullain  (1004),  and  in  his  History  of  Ireland, 
the  Heroic  Period  (1878).  For  full  bibliography,  see  R.  I.  Best's  Bib- 
liography of  Irish  Philology  and  Printed  Literature  (1913),  and 
Joseph  Dunn's  Tain  B6  Crlahige.  pp.  xxxii-xxxvi  (1914). 


IRISH  PRECURSORS  OF  DANTE 


By  Sidney  Gunn,  M.  A. 

ONE  of  the  supreme  creations  of  the  human  mind  is  the 
Divine  Comedy  of  Dante,  and  undoubtedly  one  of  its 
chief  sources  is  the  Hterature  of  ancient  Ireland.  Dante 
himself  was  a  native  of  Florence,  Italy,  and  lived  from  1265  to 
1321.  Like  many  great  men,  he  incurred  the  hatred  of  his 
countrymen,  and  he  spent,  as  a  result,  the  last  twenty  years 
of  his  life  in  exile  with  a  price  on  his  head.  He  had  been 
falsely  accused  of  theft  and  treachery,  and  his  indignation  at 
the  wrong  thus  done  him  and  at  the  evil  conduct  of  his  con- 
temporaries led  him  to  write  his  poem,  in  which  he  visits 
Hell,  Purgatory,  and  Paradise,  and  learns  how  God  punishes 
bad  actions,  and  how  He  rewards  those  who  do  His  will. 

To  the  writing  of  his  poem  Dante  brought  all  the  learning 
of  his  time,  all  its  science,  and  an  art  that  has  never  been  sur- 
passed, perhaps  never  equalled.  Of  course,  he  did  not  know 
any  Irish,  but  he  knew  Italian  and  the  then  universal  tongue 
of  the  learned — Latin,  in  both  of  which  were  tales  of  visits 
to  the  other  world ;  and  the  greater  part  of  these  tales,  as  well 
as  those  most  resembling  Dante's  work  in  form  and  spirit, 
were  Irish  in  origin. 

All  peoples  have  traditions  of  persons  visiting  the  realms  of 
the  dead.  Homer  tells  of  Odysseus  going  there;  Virgil  does 
the  same  of  Aeneas;  and  the  Oriental  peoples,  as  well  as  the 
Germanic  races,  have  similar  tales ;  but  no  people  have  so 
many  or  such  finished  accounts  of  this  sort  as  the  ancient 
Irish.  In  pagan  times  in  Ireland  one  of  the  commonest  ad- 
ventures attributed  to  a  hero  was  a  visit  to  "tir  na  m-beo," 
the  land  of  the  living,  or  to  "tir  na  n-6g,"  the  land  of  the 
young ;  and  this  supernatural  world  was  reached  in  some  cases 
by  entering  a  fairy  mound  and  going  beneath  the  ground  to  it, 
and  in  others  by  sailing  over  the  ocean. 

Of  the  literature  of  pagan  Ireland,  though  much  has  come 
down  to  us,  we  have  only  a  very  small  fraction  of  what  once 
existed,  and  what  we  have  has  been  transmitted  and  modified 
by  persons  of  later  times  and  different  culture,  who,  both  con- 


278 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


sciously  and  unconsciously,  have  changed  it,  so  that  it  is  very 
different  from  what  it  was  in  its  original  form ;  but  the  subject 
and  the  main  outlines  still  remain,  and  we  have  many  accounts 
of  both  voyages  and  underground  journeys  to  the  other  world. 

The  oldest  voyage  is,  perhaps,  that  of  Maelduin,  which^ 
Tennyson  has  transmuted  into  English  under  the  title  The 
Voyage  of  Maeldiine.  This  is  a  voyage  undertaken  for 
revenge ;  but  vengeance,  as  Sir  Walter  Scott  has  pointed  out 
in  his  preface  to  The  Two  Drovers,  springs  in  a  barbarous 
society  from  a  passion  for  justice;  and  it  is  this  instinct  for 
justice  that  inspires  the  Irish  hero  to  endure  and  to  achieve 
what  he  does.  Christianity  has  preserved  this  legend  and 
added  to  it  its  own  peculiar  quality  of  mercy;  and  this  illus- 
trates one  of  the  characteristics  of  Ireland's  pagan  literature — 
it  is  imperfectly  Christian  and  can  readily  be  made  to  express 
the  Christian  point  of  view. 

Another  voyage  of  pagan  Irish  literature  is  the  Voyage  of 
Bran.  In  this  tale  idealism  is  the  inspiration  that  leads  the 
hero  into  the  unknown  world.  A  woman  appears  who  is 
invisible  to  all  but  Bran,  and  whose  song  of  the  beauteous 
supernatural  land  beyond  the  wave  is  heard  by  none  but  him ; 
so  that,  after  refusing  to  go  with  her  the  first  time  she  appears, 
at  length  he  steps  into  her  boat  of  glass  and  sails  away  to  view 
the  wonders  and  taste  the  joys  of  the  other  world. 

In  these  tales  we  have  two  main  elements,  one  real  and  one 
ideal.  The  real  element  is  the  fact  that  the  ancient  Irish 
unquestionably  made  voyages  and  visited  lands  which  the 
fervid  Celtic  imagination  and  the  lapse  of  time  transformed 
into  the  wonderful  regions  of  the  legends.  The  stories  are 
thus  early  geographies,  and  they  show  unmistakably  a  knowl- 
edge of  western  Europe  and  of  the  Canary  Islands  or  some 
other  tropical  regions ;  perhaps  also,  some  have  gone  so  far 
as  to  claim,  they  are  reminiscent  of  voyages  to  America. 

The  ideal  element  is  no  less  important  as  indicating  achieve- 
ment, for  it  shows  that  the  Irish  poets  of  pagan  times  had  not 
only  realized,  but  had  succeeded  in  making  their  national  tra- 
ditions embody,  the  fact  that  love  of  justice  and  aspiration 
for  knowledge  are  the  foundations  of  all  enduring  human 
achievement  and  all  perfect  human  joy.    Christianity  there- 


IRISH    PRECURSORS  DANTE; 


279 


fore  found  moral  and  spiritual  ideas  of  a  highly  developed 
order  in  pagan  Ireland,  and  it  did  not  hesitate  to  adopt  what- 
ever in  the  literature  of  the  country  illustrated  its  own  teach- 
ings, and  not  only  were  these  stories  of  visits  to  the  other 
world  full  of  suggestions  as  to  ways  of  enforcing  Christian 
doctrine,  but  the  Irish  church  and  men  of  Irish  birth  were  the 
most  active  in  spreading  the  faith  in  the  early  centuries  of  its 
conquest  of  western  Europe. 

For  these  reasons  it  is  not  strange  that  all  the  earliest  Chris- 
tian visions  of  the  spirit-world  were  of  Irish  origin.  We  find 
the  earliest  in  the  Ecclesiastical  History  of  the  "Venerable 
Bede,"  who  died  in  735.  It  is  the  story  of  how  an  Irishman 
of  great  sanctity,  Furseus  by  name,  was  taken  in  spirit  by 
three  angels  to  a  place  from  which  he  looked  down  and  saw 
the  four  fires  that  are  to  consume  the  world:  those  of  false- 
hood, avarice,  discord,  fraud  and  impiety.  In  this  there  is 
the  germ  of  some  very  fundamental  things  in  Dante's  poem, 
and  we  know  that  Dante  knew  Bede  and  had  probably  read 
his  history,  for  he  places  him  in  Paradise  and  mentions  him 
elsewhere  in  his  works. 

In  Bede's  work  there  is  also  another  vision,  and  though  in 
this  second  case  the  man  who  visits  the  spirit-world  is  not  an 
Irishman,  but  a  Saxon  named  Drithelm,  yet  the  story  came  to 
Bede  through  an  Irish  monk  named  Haemgils;  so  it,  too,  is 
connected  with  Ireland,  and  it  also  contains  much  that  is 
developed  further  in  the  Divine  Comedy. 

One  of  the  most  celebrated  of  the  works  belonging  to  this 
class  of  so-called  "visionary"  writings  is  the  Fis  or  "Vision" 
which  goes  under  the  name  of  the  famous  Irish  saint,  Adam- 
nan,  who  was  poetically  entitled  the  "High  Scholar  of  the 
Western  World."  This  particular  vision,  the  Fis  Adamndin,  is 
remarkable  among  other  things  for  its  literary  quality,  which  is 
far  superior  to  anything  of  the  time,  and  for  the  fact  that  it  rep- 
resents "the  highest  level  of  the  school  to  which  it  belonged," 
and  that  it  is  "the  most  important  contribution  made  to  the 
growth  of  the  legend  within  the  Christian  Church  prior  to  the 
advent  of  Dante." 

Another  Irish  vision  of  great  popularity  all  over  Europe  in 
the  Middle  Ages  is  the  Voyage  of  Saint  Brendan.    This  is 


280 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


known  as  the  Irish  Odyssey,  and  it  is  similar  to  the  pagan 
tales  of  Maelduin  and  Bran,  except  that  instead  of  its  hero 
being  a  dauntless  warrior  seeking  vengeance  or  a  noble  youth 
seeking  happiness,  he  is  a  Christian  saint  in  quest  of  peace; 
and  instead  of  the  perils  of  the  way  being  overcome  by  physical 
force  or  the  favor  of  some  capricious  pagan  deity,  they  are 
averted  by  the  power  of  faith  and  virtue. 

The  Voyage  of  Saint  Brendan,  like  its  pagan  predecessors, 
has  a  real  and  an  ideal  basis ;  and  in  both  respects  it  shows  an 
advancement  over  its  prototypes.  It  contains  some  very  poetic 
touches,  and  is  credited  with  being  the  source  of  some  of  the 
most  effective  features  of  Dante's  poem.  Its  great  popularity 
is  shown  by  the  fact  that  Caxton,  the  first  English  printer, 
published  a  translation  of  it  in  1483 ;  so  that  it  w^as  among  the 
first  books  printed  in  English,  and  for  that  reason  must  have 
been  one  of  the  best-known  works  of  the  time.  Dante  un- 
doubtedly knew  it,  for  he  was  a  great  scholar  in  the  learning 
of  his  day,  and  especially  in  ecclesiastical  history  and  the 
biography  of  saints. 

Another  vision  of  Irish  origin  that  Dante  and  other  writers 
have  borrowed  from  is  that  of  an  Irish  soldier  named  Tun- 
dale.  He  is  said  to  have  been  a  very  wicked  and  proud  man, 
who  refused  to  a  friend  who  owed  him  for  three  horses  an  ex- 
tension of  time  in  which  to  pay  for  them.  For  this  he  was 
struck  down  by  an  invisible  hand  so  that  he  remained  apparently 
dead  from  Wednesday  till  Saturday,  when  he  revived  and  told 
a  story  of  a  visit  to  the  world  of  the  dead  that  has  many 
features  later  embodied  in  the  Divine  Comedy.  Tundale's 
vision  is  said  to  have  taken  place  in  1149 ;  Dante  probably 
wrote  his  poem  between  1314  and  1321. 

The  Irish  also  produced  another  legend  of  this  sort  that  was 
enormously  and  universally  popular,  and  became  the  chief 
authority  on  the  nature  of  heaven  and  hell,  in  the  story  of 
Saint  Patrick's  Purgatory.  Saint  Patrick  was  said  to  have 
been  granted  a  view  of  heaven  and  hell,  and  a  certain  island  in 
Tough  Derg  in  Donegal  was  reputed  to  be  the  spot  in  which  he 
had  begun  his  journey;  and  there,  it  was  said,  those  who 
desired  to  purge  themselves  of  their  sins  could  enter  as  he 


IRISH    PRECURSORS   OF  DANTE 


281 


had  entered  and  come  back  to  the  world  again,  provided  their 
faith  was  strong  enough. 

This  legend  was  probably  known  in  Ireland  from  a  very 
early  time,  but  it  had  spread  over  all  western  Europe  by  the 
twelfth  century.  Henry  of  Saltrey,  a  Benedictine  monk  of 
the  Abbey  of  that  name  in  England,  wrote  an  account  in  Latin 
of  the  descent  of  an  Irish  soldier  named  Owen  into  Saint 
Patrick's  Purgatory  in  1153;  and  this  story  soon  became  the 
subject  of  poetic  treatment  all  over  Europe.  We  have  several 
French  versions,  one  by  the  celebrated  French  poetess  Marie 
de  France,  who  lived  about  1200 ;  and  there  are  others  in  all 
the  languages  of  Europe,  besides  evidence  of  its  wide  circula- 
tion in  the  original  Latin.  Its  importance  is  shown  by  the 
fact  that  it  is  mentioned  by  Matthew  Paris,  the  chief  English 
historian  of  the  thirteenth  century,  and  also  by  Froissart,  the 
well-known  French  annalist  of  the  fourteenth ;  while  Calderon, 
the  great  Spanish  dramatist,  has  written  a  play  based  on  the 
legend.  Dante  undoubtedly  knew  of  Marie  de  France's  ver- 
sion as  well  as  the  original  of  Henry  of  Saltrey  and  probably 
others  besides. 

From  what  has  been  said  it  will  be  seen  that  Dante's  master- 
piece is  largely  based  on  literature  of  Irish  origin;  but  there 
are  other  superlative  exhibitions  of  human  genius  of  which  ' 
the  same  is  true.  One  of  these  is  the  story  of  Tristan  and 
Isolde.  Tristan  is  the  paragon  of  all  knightly  accomplish- 
ments, the  most  versatile  figure  in  the  entire  literature  of  chiv- 
alry; while  Isolde  is  an  Irish  princess.  By  a  trick  of  fate 
these  two  drink  a  love  potion  inadvertently  and  become  irre- 
sistibly enamored  of  each  other,  although  Isolde  is  betrothed 
to  King  Mark  of  Cornwall,  and  Tristan  is  his  nephew  and 
ambassador.  The  story  that  follows  is  infinitely  varied,  in- 
tensely dramatic,  delicately  beautiful,  and  tenderly  pathetic. 
It  has  been  treated  by  several  poets  of  great  genius,  among 
them  Gottfried  of  Strassburg,  the  greatest  German  poet  of 
his  time,  and  Richard  Wagner;  but  all  the  beauty  and  power 
in  the  works  of  these  men  existed  in  the  original  Celtic  form 
of  the  tale,  and  the  later  writers  have  only  discovered  it  and 
brought  it  to  light. 


282 


TIIE^  GLORIKS  OF  IRELAND 


The  same  thing  is  true  of  the  Arthurian  Legend  and  the 
story  of  the  Holy  Grail.  Dante  knew  of  King  Arthur's  fame, 
and  mentions  him  in  the  Inferno.  To  Dante  he  was  a  Chris- 
tian hero,  and  the  historical  Arthur  may  have  been  a  Christian ; 
but  much  in  the  story  goes  back  to  the  pagan  Celtic  religion. 
We  can  find  in  Irish  literature  many  references  that  indicate  a 
belief  in  a  self-sustaining,  miraculous  object  similar  to  the 
Holy  Grail,  and  the  fact  that  this  object  was  developed  into  a 
symbol  of  some  of  the  deepest  and  most  beautiful  Christian 
truths  shows  the  high  character  of  the  civilization  and  litera- 
ture of  ancient  Ireland. 

Refeee.nces  : 

Wright:  St.  Patrick's  Purgatory  (London,  1844);  Krapp:  Ttie 
Legend  of  St.  Patrick's  Purgatory  (Baltimore,  1900)  ;  Becker:  Me- 
diaeval Visions  of  Heaven  and  Hell  (Baltimore,  1899)  ;  Shackford : 
Legends  and  Satires  (Boston,  1913);  Meyer  and  Nutt:  The  Voyage 
of  Bran,  edited  and  translated  by  K.  Meyer,  with  an  Essay  on  the 
Irish  Version  of  the  Happy  Other  World  and  the  Celtic  Doctrine  of 
Rebirth,  by  A.  Nutt,  2  vols.  (London,  1895);  Boswell :  An  Irish 
Precursor  of  Dante  (London,  1908). 


IRISH  INFLUENCE  ON  ENGLISH 
LITERATURE 

By  E.  C.  Ouiggin,  M.A. 

AMONG  the  literary  peoples  of  the  west  of  Europe,  the 
Irish,  in  late  medieval  and  early  modern  times,  were 
singularly  little  affected  by  the  frequent  innovations  in  taste 
and  theme  which  influenced  Romance  and  Teutonic  nations 
alike.  To  such  an  extent  is  this  true,  that  one  is  often  inclined 
to  think  that  far-off  Iceland  was  to  a  greater  degree  in  the 
general  European  current  than  the  much  more  accessible  Erin. 
During  the  age  of  chivalry,  conditions  in  Ireland  were  not  cal- 
culated to  promote  the  growth  of  epic  and  lyric  poetry  after 
the  continental  manner.  Some  considerable  time  elapsed  be- 
fore the  Norman  barons  became  fully  Hibernicised,  previous 
to  which  their  interest  may  be  assumed  to  have  turned  to  the 
compositions  of  the  trouveres.  In  the  early  Norman  period, 
the  poets  of  Ireland  might  well  have  begun  to  imitate  Romance 
models.  But,  strange  to  say,  they  did  not,  and,  for  this,  various 
reasons  might  be  assigned.  The  flowing  verses  of  the  Anglo-' 
Norman  were  impossible  for  men  who  delighted  in  the  tram- 
mels of  the  native  prosody;  and  in  the  heyday  of  French 
influence,  the  patrons  of  letters  in  Ireland  probably  insisted 
on  hearing  the  foreign  compositions  in  their  original  dress,  as 
these  nobles  were  doubtless  sufficiently  versed  in  Norman- 
French  to  be  able  to  appreciate  them.  But  a  still  more  potent 
factor  was  the  conservatism  of  the  hereditary  Irish  poet  fami- 
lies. A  close  corporation,  they  appear  to  have  resented  every 
innovation,  and  were  content  to  continue  the  tradition  of  their 
ancestors.  The  direct  consequence  of  this  tenacious  clinging 
to  the  fashions  of  by-gone  days  rendered  it  impossible,  nay 
almost  inconceivable,  that  the  literary  men  of  Ireland  should 
have  exerted  any  profound  or  immediate  influence  upon  Eng- 
land or  western  Europe.  Yet,  nowadays,  few  serious  scholars 
will  be  prepared  to  deny  that  the  island  contributed  in  con- 
siderable measure  to  the  common  literary  stock  of  the  Middle 
Ages. 


284 


THE  GLORIES  OE  IRELAND 


We  might  expect  to  find  that  direct  influence,  as  a  general 
rule,  can  be  most  easily  traced  in  the  case  of  rehgious  themes. 
Here,  in  the  literature  of  vision,  so  popular  in  Ireland,  a  chord 
was  struck  which  continued  to  vibrate  powerfully  until  tha 
time  of  the  Reformation.  In  this  branch  the  riotous  fancy  of 
the  Celtic  monk  caught  the  medieval  imagination  from  an 
early  period.  Bede  has  preserved  for  us  the  story  of  Furse^ 
an  Irish  hermit  who  died  in  France,  A.  D.  650.  The  greatest 
Irish  composition  of  this  class  with  which  we  are  acquainted, 
the  Vision  of  Adamnan,  does  not  appear  to  have  been  known 
outside  the  island,  but  a  later  work  of  a  similar  nature  met 
with  striking  success.  This  was  the  Vision  of  Tundale  (Tnud- 
gal),  written  in  Latin  by  an  Irishman  named  Marcus  at 
Regensburg,  about  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century.  It  seems 
probable  that  this  work  was  known  to  Dante,  and,  in  addition 
to  the  numerous  continental  versions,  there  is  a  rendering  of 
the  story  into  Middle  English  verse. 

Closely  allied  to  the  Visions  are  the  Imrama  or  "voyages" 
(Lat.  navigationes).  The  earliest  romances  of  this  class  are 
secular,  e.  g.,  Imram  Maelduin,  which  provided  Tennyson  with 
the  frame- work  of  his  well-known  poem.  However,  the  notor- 
ious love  of  adventure  on  the  part  of  the  Irish  monks  inevitably 
led  to  the  composition  of  religious  romances  of  a  similar  kind. 
The  most  famous  story  of  this  description,  the  Voyage  of  St. 
Brendan,  found  its  way  into  every  Christian  country  in  Europe, 
and  consequently  figures  in  the  South  English  Legendary,  a  col- 
lection of  versified  lives  of  saints  made  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Gloucester  towards  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century.  The 
episode  of  St.  Brendan  and  the  whale,  moreover,  was  probably 
the  ultimate  source  of  one  of  Milton's  best  known  similes  in 
his  description  of  Satan.  Equally  popular  was  the  visit  of  Sir 
Owayn  to  the  Purgatory  of  St.  Patrick,  which  is  also  included 
in  the  same  Middle  English  Legendary.  Ireland  further  con- 
tributed in  some  measure  to  the  common  stock  of  medieval 
stories  which  were  used  as  illustrations  by  the  preachers  and 
in  works  of  an  edifying  character. 

When  we  turn  to  purely  secular  themes,  we  find  ourselves 
on  much  less  certain  ground.  Though  the  discussion  as  to  the 
origins  of  the  "romance  of  Uther's  son",  Arthur,  continues  with 


IRISH   INFLUENCiv  ON  liNGUSH   UTERATtTR^  285 

unabated  vigor,  many  scholars  have  come  to  think  that  the 
Celtic  background  of  these  stories  contains  much  that  is  de- 
rived from  Hiberniart  sources.  Some  writers  in  the  past  have 
argued  in  favor  of  an  independent  survival  of  common  Celtic 
features  .in  Wales  and  Ireland,  but  now  the  tendency  is  to 
regard  all  such  coincidences  as  borrowings  on  the  part  of 
Cymric  craftsmen.  At  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century  a 
new  impulse  seems  to  have  been  imparted  to  native  minstrelsy 
in  Wales  under 'the  patronage  of  Gruff  ydd  ap  Cynan,  a  prince 
of  Gwynedd,  who  had  spent  many  years  in  exile -at  the  court  of 
Dublin.  Some  of  the  Welsh  rhapsodists  apparently  served  a 
kind  of  apprenticeship  with  their  Irish  brethren,  and  many 
things  Irishiwere  assimilated  at  this  time  which,  'through  this 
channel,  were  shortly  to  find  their  way  into  Anglo-French. 
Thus  it  may  now  be  regarded  as  certain  that  the  name  of  the 
"fair  sword"  Excalibur,  by  Geoffrey  called  Caliburnus  (Welsh 
caletfwlch) ,  is  taken  from  Caladbolg,  the  far-famed  broad- 
sword of  Fergus  macRoig.  It  does  not  appear  that  the  whole 
framework  of  the  Irish  sagas  was  taken  over,  but,  as  Windisch 
pomts  out,  episodes  were  borrowed  as  well  as^tricks  of  imagery. 
So,  to  mention  but  one,  the  central  incident  of  Syr  Gawayn  and 
the  Grena  Knyght  is  doubtless  taken  from  the  similar  adven- 
ture of  Cuchulainn  in  Bricrhi's  Feast.  The  share  assigned  tO' 
Irish  influence  in  the  matiere  de  Bretagne  is  likely  to  grow 
considerably  with  the  progress  of  research. 

The  fairy  lore  of  Great  Britain  undoubtedly  owes  much  to 
Celtic  phantasy.  Of  this  Chaucer,  at  any  rate,  had  little  doubt, 
as  he  writes: 

In  th'  olde  dayes  of  the  King  Arthour, 
Of  which  that  Britons  speken  greet  honour, 
Al  was  this  land  fulfild  of  fayerye; 
The  elf-queen,  with  hir  joly  companye, 
Daunced  ful  ofte  in  many  a  grene  med. 

And  here  again  there  is  a  reasonable  probability  that  certain 
features  were  borrowed  from  the  wealth  of  story  current  in 
the  neighboring  isle.  Otherwise  it  is  difficult  to  understand 
why  the  queen  of  fayerye  should  bear  an  Irish  name  (Mab, 
•from  Irish  Medb).  and  curiously  enough  the  form  of  the  name 
rathef  suggests  that  it  was  borrowed  through  a  written  medium 


286 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


and  not  by  oral  tradition.  On  the  other  hand  it  is  incorrect 
to  derive  Puck  from  Irish  puca^  as  the  latter  is  undoubtedly 
borrowed  from  some  torm  of  Teutonic  speech. 

So  all  embracing  a  mind  as  that  of  the  greatest'  English 
dramatist  could  not  fail  to  be  interested  in  the  gossip  that  must 
have  been  current  in  London  at  the  time  of  the  wars  in  Ulster. 
References  to  kerns  and  gallowglasses  are  fairly  frequent.  He 
had  evidently  heard  of  the  marvellous  powers  with  which  the 
Irish  ibards  were  credited,  for,  in  As  You  Like  It,  Rosalind 
exclaims : 

"I  was  never  so  be-rhymed  since  Pythagoras'  time,  that  I 
was  an  Irish  rat,  which  I  can  hardly  remember." 

Similarly,  in  King  Richard  III,  mention  is  made  of  the  pro- 
phetic utterance  of  an  Irish  bard,  a  trait  which,  does  not  appear 
in  the  poet's  source.  Any  statements  as  to  Irish  influence  in 
Shakespeare  that  go  beyond  this  belong  to  the  realm  of  con- 
jecture. Professor  Kittredge  has  attempted  to  show  that  in  Syr 
Orfeo,  upon  which  the  poet  drew  for  portions  of  the  plot  of 
A  Midsummer  ^ighfs  Dream,  the  Irish  story  of  Etain  and 
Mider  was  fused  with  the  medieval  form  of  the  classical  tale  of 
Orpheus  and  Eurydice.  Direct  influence  is  entirely  wanting, 
and  it  is  difficult  to  see  hov/  it  could  have  been  otherwise. 

Even  in  the  case  of  the  Elizabethan  poet  who  spent  many 
years  in  the  south  of  Ireland,  there  is  no  trace  of  Hibernian 
lore  or  legend.  Spenser,  indeed,  tells  us  himself  that  he  had 
caused  some  of  the  native  poetry  to  be  translated  to  him,  and 
had  found  that  it  "savoured"  of  sweet  wit  and  good  invention." 
But  Ireland  plays  an  infinitesimal  part  in  the  Faerie  Qucene. 
The  scenery  round  Kilcolman  Castle  forms  the  background  of 
much  of  the  incident  in  Book  V.  "Marble  far  from  Ireland 
brought"  is  mentioned  in  a  simile  in  the  second  Book,  where 
we  also  read: 

As  when  a  swarme  of  gnats  at  eventide 
Out  of  the  fennes  of  Allan  do  arise. 

But  Ireland  supplied  no  further  inspiration. 

The  various  plantations  of  the  seventeenth  century  pro- 
duced an  Anglo-Irish  stock  which  soon  asserted  itself  in  liter- 
ature.  As  a  typical  example,  we  may  take  the  author  of  The 


IRISH  influence:  on  ENGLISH  UTERATURE  287 

Vicar  of  IVakeMd.  At  his  first  school  at  Lissoy,  Oliver  Gold- 
smith came  under  Thomas  Byrne,  a  regular  shanachie,  pos- 
sessed of  all  the  traditional  lore,  with  a  remarkable  gift  for 
versifying.  It  was  under  this  man  that  the  boy  made  his  first 
attempts  at  Verse,  and  his  memory  is  celebrated  (n  The  Deserted 
Village : 

There,  in  his  noisy  mansion,  skilled  to  rule. 
The  village  master  taught  his  little  school. 
A  man  severe  he  was,  and  stern  to  view. 

Unfortunately  Goldsmith  was  removed  to  Elphin  at  the  age  of 
nine,  and  although  he  retained  an  affection  for  Irish  music  all 
his  life,  his  intimate  connection  with  Irish  Ireland  apparently 
ceased  at  this  point.  "Sweet  Auburn !  loveliest  village  of  the 
plain"  is  doubtless  full  of  reminiscences  of  the  poet's  early 
years  in  Westmeath,  but  the  sentiments,  the  rhythm,  and  the 
language  are  entirely  cast  in  an  English  mould.  We  may 
mention,  in  passing,  that  it  has  been  suggested  that  Swift  de- 
rived the  idea  of  the  kingdom  of  Lilliput  from  the  Irish  story 
of  the  Adventures  of  Fergus  macLeide  amongst  the  lepre- 
chauns. All  that  can  be  said  is  that  this  derivation  is  not  im- 
possible, though  the  fact  that  the  tale  is  preserved  only  in  a 
single  manuscript  rather  points  to  the  conclusion  that  the  story 
did  not  enjoy  great  popularity  in  th©  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries. 

We  have  seen  that  Goldsmith  was  removed  from  an  Irish 
atmosphere  at  a  tender  age,  and  this  is  not  the  only  instance  of 
the  frowning  of  fortune  upon  the  native  literature.  When  the 
fame  of  the  ancient  bards  of  the  Gael  was  noised  from  end  to 
end  of  Europe,  it  was  through  the  medium  of  Macpherson's 
forgeries.  Fingal  caught  the  fleeting  fancy  of  the  moment  in 
a  manner  never  achieved  by  the  true  Ossianic  lays  of  Ireland. 
The  Reliques  of  Irish  Poetry,  published  by  Miss  Brooke  by 
subscription  in  Dublin  in  1789  to  vindicate  the  antiquity  of  the 
literature  of  Erin,  never  went  into  a  second  edition.  And 
although  some  of  the  pieces  contained  in  that  volume  have 
been  reprinted  in  such  undertakings  of  a  learned  character  as 
the  volumes  of  the  Dublin  Ossianic  Society,  J.  F.  Campbell's 
Leahhar  na  Feinne,  and  Cameron's  Reliquiae  Celticae,  they 


288 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


have  aroused  little  interest  amongst  those  ignorant  of  the  Irish 
tongue. 

During  the  nineteenth  century,  the  number  of  poets  who 
drew  upon  Ireland's  past  for  their  themes  increased  consid- 
erably. The  most  popular  of  all  is  unquestionably  the  author 
of  the  Irish  Melodies.  But,  here  again,  the  poet  owes  little 
or  nothing  to  vernacular  poetry,  the  mould  is  English,  the 
sentiments  are  those  of  the  poet's  age.  Moore's  acquaintance 
with  the  native  language  can  have  been  but  of  the  slightest,  and 
in  the  case  of  Mangan  we  are  told  that  he  had  to  rely  upon 
literal  versions  of  Irish  pieces  furnished  him  by  O'Donovan 
or  O' Curry.  Of  the  numerous  attempts  to  reproduce  the  over- 
elaboration  of  rhyme  to  which  Irish  verse  has  ever  been  prone, 
Father  Prout's  Bells  of  Shandon  is  perhaps  the  only  one  that 
is  at  all  widely  known.  When  the  legendary  lore  of  Ireland 
became  accessible  to  men  of  letters,  owing  to  the  labors  of 
O'Curry,  O'Donovan,  and  Hennessy,  and  the  publication  of 
various  ancient  texts  by  the  Irish  Archaeological  Society,  it 
was  to  be  expected  that  an  attempt  would  be  made  by  some 
poet  of  Erin  to  do  for  his  native  land  what  the  Wizard  of  the 
North  had  accomplished  for  Scotland.  The  task  was  under- 
taken by  Sir  Samuel  Ferguson,  who  met  with  conspicuous  suc- 
cess. His  most  ambitious  effort,  Con  gal,  deals  in  epic  fashion 
with  the  story  of  the  battle  of  Moyra.  Others  in  similar  strain 
treat  the  story  of  Conaire  Mor  and  Deirdre,  whilst  others 
such  as  the  Tain-Quest  are  more  in  the  nature  of  ballads. 
Ferguson  did  more  to  introduce  the  English  reading  pub- 
lic to  Irish  story  than  would  have  been  accomplished  by 
any  number  of  bald  translations.  His  diction  is  little  affected 
by  the  originals,  and  he  sometimes  treats  his  materials  with 
great  freedom,  but  his  achievement  was  a  notable  one,  and  he 
has  not  infrequently  been  acclaimed  as  the  national  poet. 

Is  it  perhaps  invidious  to  single  out  any  living  author  for 
special  mention,  but  this  brief  survey  cannot  close  without 
noticing  the  dramatic  poems  of  W.  B.  Yeats,  the  latest  poet 
who  attempts  to  present  the  old  stories  in  an  English  dress. 
His  plays  On  Bailees  Strand,  Deirdre,  and  others,  have  become 
familiar  to  English  audiences  through  the  excellent  acting  of 
the  members  of  the  Abbey  Theatre  Company.    The  original 


IRISH  infi.ue:nce  on  e:ngush  uterature  289 

texts  are  now  much  better  known  than  they  were  in  Fergu- 
son's day,  and  Mr.  Yeats  consequently  cannot  permit  himself 
the  same  liberties.  Similarly,  it  is  only  during  the  last  twenty- 
five  years  that  the  language  of  Irish  poetry  has  been  carefully 
studied,  and  Mr.  Yeats  has  this  advantage  over  his  prede- 
cessors that  on  occasion,  e.  g.,  in  certain  passages  in  The  King' s 
Threshold,  he  is  able  to  introduce  with  great  effect  reminis- 
cences of  the  characteristic  epithets  and  imagery  which  formed 
so  large  a  part  of  the  stock-in-trade  of  the  medieval  bard. 

References  : 

Friedel  and  Meyer:  La  Vision  de  Tondale  (Paris,  1907);  Bos- 
well:  An  Irish  Precursor  of  Dante  (London,  1908)  ;  Cambridge  His- 
tory of  English  Literature,  vol.  I,  chaps,  xii  and  xvi ;  Windisch :  Das 
Keltische  Brittannien  (Leipzig,  1912),  more  especially  chap,  xxxvii ; 
Dictionary  of  National  Biography;  Gwynn:  Thos.  Moore  ("English 
Men  of  Letters"  Series,  London,  1905). 


IRISH  FOLKLORE 


By  Alfred  Perceval  Graves. 

AMONG  savage  peoples  there  is  at  first  no  distinction  of  a 
definite  kind  between  good  and  bad  spirits,  and  when  a 
distinction  has  been  reached,  a  great  advance  in  a  spiritual 
direction  has  been  made.  For  the  key  to  the  religion  of  sav- 
ages is  fear,  and  until  such  terror  has  been  counteracted  by 
belief  in  beneficent  powers,  civilization  will  not  follow.  But 
the  elimination  of  the  fear  of  the  unseen  is  a  slow  process : 
indeed,  it  will  exist  side  by  side  with  the  belief  in  Christianity 
itself,  after  a  modification  through  various  stages  of  better 
pagan  belief. 

Ireland  still  presents,  in  its  more  out-of-the-way  districts, 
evidence  of  that  strong  persistence  in  the  belief  in  maleficent 
or  malicious  influences  of  the  pre-Christian  powers  of  the  air, 
which  it  seems  difficult  to  eradicate  from  the  Celtic  imagina- 
tion. In  the  celebrated  poem  entitled  The  Breastplate  of  St. 
Patrick,  there  is  much  the  same  attitude  on  the  part  of  Patrick 
towards  the  Druids  and  their  powers  of  concealing  and 
changing,  of  paralyzing  and  cursing,  as  was  shown  by  Moses 
towards  the  magicians  of  Egypt.  Indeed,  in  Patrick's  time  a 
belief  in  a  world  of  fairies  existed  even  in  the  king's  house- 
hold, for  "when  the  two  daughters  of  King  Leary  of  Ireland, 
Ethnea  the  fair  and  Fedelma  the  ruddy,  came  early  one  morn- 
ing to  the  well  of  Clebach  to  wash,  they  found  there  a  synod  of 
holy  bishops  with  Patrick.  And  they  knew  not  whence  they 
came,  or  in  what  form,  or  from  what  people,  or  from  what 
country ;  but  they  supposed  them  to  be  Diiine  Sidh,  or  gods  of 
the  earth,  or  a  phantasm." 

Colgan  explains  the  term  Duine  Sidh  thus:  "Fantastical 
spirits,"  he  writes,  "are  by  the  Irish  called  men  of  the  Sidh, 
because  they  are  seen,  as  it  were,  to  come  out  of  the  beautiful 
hills  to  infest  men,  and  hence  the  vulgar  belief  that  they  reside 
in  certain  subterranean  habitations:  and  sometimes  the  hills 
themselves  are  called,  by  the  Irish,  Sidhe  or  Siodha" 

No  doubt,  when  the  princesses  spoke  of  the  gods  of  the 
earth,  reference  was  made  to  such  pagan  deities  as  Beal; 


IRISH  FOI*KLOR« 


391 


Dagda  the  gjeat  or  the  good  god ;  Aine,  the  Moon,  goddess  of 
the  water  and  of  wisdom;  Manannan  macLir,  the  Irish  Nep- 
tune ;  Crom,  the  Irish  Ceres ;  and  Iphinn,  the  benevolent,  whose 
relations  to  the  Irish  Oirfidh  resembled  those  of  Apollo  to- 
wards Orpheus;  and  to  the  allegiance  they  owed  to  the  Ele- 
ments, the  Wind,  and  the  Stars.  But  besides  these  pagan 
divinities  and  powers,  and  quite  apart  from  them,  the  early 
Irish  believed  in  two  classes  of  fairies:  in  the  first  place,  a 
hierarchy  of  fairy  beings,  well  and  ill  disposed,  not  differing 
in  appearance,  to  any  great  degree  at  any  rate,  from  human 
beings — good  spirits  and  demons,  rarely  visible  during  the  day- 
time; and,  in  the  second  place,  there  was  the  magic  race  of 
the  De  Danann,  who,  after  conquest  by  the  Milesians,  trans- 
formed themselves  into  fairies,  and  in  that  guise  continued  to 
inhabit  the  underworld  of  the  Irish  hills,  and  to  issue  thence 
in  support  of  Irish  heroes,  or  to  give  their  aid  against  other 
fairy  adversaries. 

There  is  another  theory  to  account  for  the  fairy  race.  It 
is  that  they  are  angels  who  revolted  with  Satan  and  were  ex- 
cluded from  heaven  for  their  unworthiness,  but  were  not 
found  evil  enough  for  hell,  and  therefore  were  allowed  to 
occupy  that  intermediate  space  which  has  been  called  "the 
Other  World."  It  is  still  a  moot  point  with  the  Irish  peas- 
antry, as  it  was  with  the  Irish  saints  of  old,  whether,  after 
being  compelled  to  dwell  without  death  among  rocks  and  hilb, 
lakes  and  seas,  bushes  and  forest,  till  the  day  of  judgment,  the 
fairies  then  have  the  chance  of  salvation.  Indeed,  the  fairies 
arc  themselves  believed  to  have  great  doubts  of  a  future  exist- 
ence, though,  like  many  men,  entertaining  undefined  hopes  of 
happiness ;  and  hence  the  enmity  which  some  of  them  have  for 
mankind,  who,  they  acknowledge,  will  live  eternally.  Thus 
their  actions  are  balanced  between  generosity  and  vindictive- 
ness  towards  the  human  race. 

Mr.  W.  Y.  Evans  Wentz,  A.  M.,  of  Leiand  Stanford  Uni- 
versity, California,  and  Jesus  College,  Oxford,  has  received  an 
honorary  degree  from  the  latter  university  for  his  thesis, 
"The  Fairy  Faith  in  Celtic  Countries:  Its  Psychical  Origin 
and  Nature",  a  most  laborious  as  well  as  ingenious  work,  whose 
object  is  to  prove  "that  the  origin  of  the  fairy  faith  is  psy- 


292 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


chical,  and  that  fairyland,  being  thought  of  as  an  invisible 
world  within  which  the  visible  world  is  immersed  as  an  island 
in  an  unexplored  ocean,  actually  exists,  and  that  it  is  peopled 
by  more  species  of  living  beings  than  this  world,  because  in- 
comparably more  vast  and  varied  in  its  possibilities."  This 
may  be  added  as  a  fourth  theory  to  account  for  the  existence 
of  fairies,  and  it  may  be  further  stated  here  that  the  Irish 
popular  belief  in  ghosts  attributes  to  some  of  their  departed 
spirits  much  of  the  same  violence  and  malice  with  which 
fairies  are  credited.  Mr.  Jeremiah  Curtin  gives  striking  in- 
stances of  this  kind  in  his  book,  the  Folk  Lore  of  West  Kerry. 

It  became  necessary,  therefore,  for  the  Gaels  who  believed 
in  the  preternatural  powers  of  the  fairies  for  good  and  ill  to 
propitiate  them  as  far  as  possible.  On  May  eve,  accordingly^ 
cattle  were  driven  into  raths  and  bled  there,  some  of  the  blood 
being  tasted,  the  rest  poured  out  in  sacrifice.  Men  and  women 
were  also  bled  on  these  occasions.  The  seekers  for  buried 
treasure,  over  which  fairies  were  supposed  to  have  influence, 
immolated  a  black  cock  or  a  black  cat  to  propitiate  them. 
Again,  a  cow,  suffering  from  sickness  believed  to  be  due  to 
fairy  malice,  was  bled  and  then  devoted  to  St.  Martin.  If  it 
recovered,  it  was  never  sold  or  killed.  The  first  new  milk  of  a 
cow  was  poured  out  on  the  ground  to  propitiate  the  fairies, 
and  especially  on  the  ground  within  a  fairy  rath.  The  first 
drop  of  any  drink  is  also  thrown  out  by  old  Irish  people.  If 
a  child  spills  milk,  the  mother  says,  "that's  for  the  fairies, 
leave  it  to  them  and  welcome."  Slops  should  never  be  thrown 
out  of  doors  without  the  warning,  "Take  care  of  water!"  lest 
fairies  should  be  passing  invisibly  and  get  soiled  by  the  dis- 
charge. Eddies  of  dust  upon  the  road  are  supposed  to  be 
caused  by  the  fairies,  and  tufts  of  grass,  sticks,  and  pebbles 
are  thrown  into  the  centre  of  the  eddy  to  propitiate  the  unseen 
beings.  Some  fairies  of  life  size,  who  live  within  the  green 
hills  or  under  the  raths,  are  supposed  to  carry  off  healthy 
babes  to  be  made  fairy  children,  their  abstractors  leaving  weak 
changelings  in  their  place.  Similarly,  nursing  mothers  are 
sometimes  supposed  to  be  carried  off  to  give  the  breast  to 
fairy  babes,  and  handsome  younsr  men  are  spirited  away  to 
become  bridegrooms  to  fairy  brides.    Again,  folk  suffering 


IRISH  FOI.KLORE 


293 


from  falling  sickness  are  supposed  to  be  in  that  condition 
owing  to  the  fatigue  caused  by  nocturnal  rides  through  the  air 
with  the  fairies,  whose  steeds  are  bewitched  rushes,  blades  of 
grass,  straws,  fern  roots,  and  cabbage  stalks.  The  latter,  to  be 
serviceable  for  the  purpose,  should  be  cut  into  the  rude  shapes 
of  horses  before  the  metamorphosis  can  take  place. 

Iron  of  every  kind  keeps  away  malignant  fairies:  thus,  a 
horseshoe  nailed  to  the  bottom  of  the  churn  prevents  butter 
from  being  bewitched.  Here  is  a  form  of  charm  against  the 
fairies  who  have  bewitched  the  butter :  "Every  window  should 
be  barred,  a  great  turf  fire  should  be  lit  upon  which  nine  irons 
should  be  placed,  the  bystanders  chanting  twice  over  in  Irish, 
'Come,  butter,  come;  Peter  stands  at  the  gate  waiting  for  a 
buttered  cake.'  As  the  irons  become  heated  the  witch  will 
try  to  break  in,  asking  the  people  to  take  the  irons,  which  are 
burning  her,  off  the  fire.  On  their  refusing,  she  will  go  and 
bring  back  the  butter  to  the  churn.  The  irons  may  then  be 
removed  from  the  fire  and  all  will  go  well." 

If  a  neighbor  or  stranger  should  enter  a  cottage  during  the 
churning,  he  should  put  his  hand  to  the  dash,  or  the  butter 
will  not  come.  A  small  piece  of  iron  should  be  sewed  into  an 
infant's  clothes  and  kept  there  until  the  child  is  baptized,  and 
salt  should  be  sprinkled  over  his  cradle  to  preserve  the  babe 
from  abduction.  The  fairies  are  supposed  to  have  been  con- 
quered by  an  iron-weaponed  race,  and  hence  their  dread  of 
the  metal. 

To  recover  a  spell-bound  friend,  stand  on  All  Hallows*  eve 
at  cross  roads  or  at  a  spot  pointed  out  by  a  wise  woman  or 
fairy  doctor.  When  you  have  rubbed  fairy  ointment  on  your 
eyelids,  the  fairies  will  become  visible  as  the  host  sweeps  by 
with  its  captive,  whom  the  gazer  will  then  be  able  to  recog- 
nize. A  sudden  gust  announces  their  approach.  Stooping 
down,  you  will  then  throw  dust  or  milk  at  the  procession, 
whose  members  are  then  obliged  to  surrender  your  spell- 
bound friend.  If  a  man  leaves  home  after  his  wife's  confine- 
ment, some  of  his  clothes  should  be  spread  over  the  mother 
and  infant,  or  the  fairies  may  carry  them  off.  It  is  good  for  a 
woman,  but  bad  for  a  man,  to  dream  of  fairies.    It  betokens 


294 


IRt  GLORIES  Ot  IRELAND 


marriage  for  a  girl,  misfortune  for  a  man,  who  should  not 
undertake  serious  business  for  some  time  after  such  dreaming. 

Fairy  changelings  may  be  recognized  by  tricky  habits, 
constant  crying,  and  ether  unusual  characteristics.  It  was 
customary  to  recover  the  true  child  in  the  following 
way:  The  changeling  was  placed  upon  an  iron  shovel  over 
the  fire,  when  it  would  go  shrieking  up  the  chimney,  and  the 
bona  fide  human  child  would  be  restored.  It  was  believed  that 
fairy  changelings  often  produced  a  set  of  small  bagpipes  from 
under  the  clothes  and  played  dance  music  upon  them,  till  the 
inmates  of  the  cottage  dropped  with  exhaustion  from  the 
effects  of  the  step  dancing  they  were  compelled  to  engage  in. 

On  Samain  eve,  the  night  before  the  first  of  November, 
or,  as  it  is  now  called,  All  Hallows'  night  or  Hallowe'en,  all 
the  fairy  hills  or  shees  are  thrown  wide  open  and  the  fairy  host 
issues  forth,  as  mortals  who  are  bold  enough  to  venture  near 
may  see.  Naturally  therefore  people  keep  indoors  so  as  not  to 
encounter  the  spectral  host.  The  superstition  that  the  fairies 
are  abroad  on  Samain  night  still  exists  in  Ireland  and  Scot- 
land, and  there  is  a  further  belief,  no  doubt  derived  from  it, 
that  the  graves  are  open  on  that  night  and  that  the  spirits  of 
the  dead  are  abroad. 

Salt,  as  already  suggested,  is  regarded  to  be  so  lucky  that 
if  a  child  falls,  it  should  always  be  given  three  pinches  of  salt, 
and  if  a  neighbor  calls  to  borrow  salt,  it  should  not  be  refused, 
even  though  it  be  the  last  grain  in  the  house. 

An  infant  born  with  teeth  should  have  them  drawn  by  the 
nearest  smith,  and  the  first  teeth  when  shed  should  be  thrown 
into  the  fire,  lest  the  fairies  should  get  hold  of  what  had  been 
part  of  you. 

Those  who  hear  fair>^  music  are  supposed  to  be  haunted  by 
the  melody,  and  many  are  believed  to  go  mad  or  commit  sui- 
cide in  consequence. 

The  fairies  are  thought  to  engage  in  warfare  with  one  an- 
other, and  in  the  year  1800  a  specially  sanguinary  battle  was 
believed  to  have  been  fought  between  two  clans  of  the  fairies 
in  county  Kilkenny.  In  the  morning  the  hawthorns  along 
the  fences  were  found  crushed  to  pieces  and  drenched  with 
blood, 


IRISH  FOLKLORE 


295 


In  popular  belief  fairies  often  go  hunting,  and  faint  sounds 
of  fairy  horns,  the  baying  of  fairy  hounds,  and  the  cracking 
of  fairy  whips  are  supposed  to  be  heard  on  these  occasions, 
while  the  flight  of  the  hunters  is  said  to  resemble  in  sound  the 
humming  of  bees. 

Besides  the  life-sized  fairies  who  are  reputed  to  have  these 
direct  dealings  with  human  beings,  there  are  diminutive  pre- 
ternatural beings  who  are  also  supposed  to  come  into  close 
touch  with  men.  Among  these  is  the  Luchryman  {Leith- 
phrogan),  or  brogue  maker,  otherwise  known  as  Leprechaun. 
He  is  always  found  mending  or  making  a  shoe,  and,  if  grasped 
firmly  and  kept  constantly  in  view,  will  disclose  hidden  treas- 
ure to  you,  or  render  up  his  sparan  na  sgillinge,  or  purse  of  the 
(inexhaustible)  shilling.  He  can  only  be  bound  by  a  plough 
chain  or  woolen  thread.  He  is  the  symbol  of  industry  which, 
if  steadily  faced,  leads  to  fortune,  but,  if  lost  sight  of,  is  fol- 
lowed by  its  forfeiture. 

Love  in  idleness  is  personified  by  another  pigmy,  the  Gean- 
canach  (love-talker).  He  does  not  appear,  like  the  Leprechaun, 
with  a  purse  in  one  of  his  pockets,  but  with  his  hands  in  both 
of  them,  and  a  dude  en  (short  pipe)  in  his  mouth,  as  he  lazily 
strolls  through  lonely  valleys  making  love  to  the  foolish  coun- 
try lasses  and  "gostering'*  with  the  idle  "boys."  To  meet  him' 
meant  bad  luck,  and  whoever  was  ruined  by  ill-judged  love  was 
said  to  have  been  with  the  Geancanach. 

Another  evil  sprite  was  the  Clobher-ceann,  "a  jolly,  red- 
faced,  drunken  little  fellow,"  always  "found  astride  of  a  wine- 
butt"  singing  and  drinking  from  a  full  tankard  in  a  hard 
drinker's  cellar,  and  bound  by  his  appearance  to  bring  its  owner 
to  speedy  ruin. 

Then  there  were  the  Leannan-sighes,  or  native  Muses,  to  be 
found  in  every  place  of  note  to  inspire  the  local  bard,  and  the 
Beansighes  (Banshees,  fairy  women)  attached  to  each  of  the 
old  Irish  families  and  giving  warning  of  the  death  of  one  of 
its  members  with  piteous  lamentations. 

Black  Joanna  of  the  Boyne  (Siubhan  Dubh  na  Boinne)  ap- 
peared on  Hallowe'en  in  the  shape  of  si  great  black  fowl, 
bringing  luck  to  the  home  whose  Banithee  (woman  of  the 
house)  kept  the  dwelling  constantly  clean  and  neat. 


296 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


The  Pooka,  who  appeared  in  the  shape  of  a  horse,  and  whom 
Shakespeare  is  by  many  beheved  to  have  adapted  as  "Puck," 
was  a  goblin  who  combined  "horse-play"  with  viciousness,  but 
also  at  times  helped  with  the  housework. 

The  Dullaghan  was  a  churchyard  demon  whose  head  was  of 
a  movable  kind.  Dr.  Joyce  writes:  "You  generally  meet 
him  with  his  head  in  his  pocket,  under  his  arm,  or  absent 
altogether;  or  if  you  have  the  fortune  to  light  upon  a  number 
of  Didlaghans,  you  may  see  them  amusing  themselves  by  fling- 
ing their  heads  at  one  another  or  kicking  them  for  footballs." 

An  even  more  terrible  churchyard  demon  is  the  fascinating 
phantom  that  waylays  the  widower  at  his  wife's  very  tomb, 
and  poisons  him  by  her  kiss  when  he  has  yielded  to  her  blan- 
dishments. 

Of  monsters  the  Irish  had,  and  still  believe  in,  the  Piast 
(Latin  bestia),  a  huge  dragon  or  serpent  confined  to  lakes  by 
St.  Patrick  till  the  day  of  judgment,  but  still  occasionally  seen 
in  their  waters.  In  old  Fenian  times,  namely,  the  days  of  Finn 
and  his  companion  knights,  the  Piasts,  however,  roamed  the 
country,  devouring  men  and  women  and  cattle  in  large  num- 
bers, and  some  of  the  early  heroes  are  recorded  to  have  been 
swallowed  alive  by  them  and  then  to  have  hewed  their  way 
out  of  their  entrails. 

Merrows,  or  Mermaids,  are  also  still  believed  in,  and  many 
folk  tales  exist  describing  their  intermarriage  with  mortals. 

According  to  Nicholas  O'Kearney,  "It  is  the  general  opinion 
of  many  old  persons  versed  in  native  traditional  lore,  that,  be- 
fore the  introduction  of  Christianity,  all  animals  possessed  the 
faculties  of  human  reason  and  speech ;  and  old  story-tellers 
will  gravely  inform  you  that  every  beast  could  speak  before 
the  arrival  of  St.  Patrick,  but  that  the  saint  having  expelled 
the  demons  from  the  land  by  the  sound  of  his  bell,  all  the  ani- 
mals that,  before  that  time,  had  possessed  the  power  of  fore- 
telling future  events,  such  as  the  Black  Steed  of  Binn-each- 
lahhra,  the  Royal  Cat  of  Cloughmagh-rigli-cat  (Clou^h),  and 
others,  became  mute,  and  many  of  them  fled  to  Egypt  and 
other  foreign  countries." 

Cats  are  said  to  have  been  appointed  to  guard  hidden  treas- 
ures ;  and  there  are  few  who  have  not  heard  old  Irish  people 


IRISH  FOLKLORE 


297 


tell  about  strange  meetings  of  cats  and  violent  battles  fought 
by  them  in  the  neighborhood.  "It  was  believed,"  adds  O'Kear- 
ney,  "that  an  evil  spirit  in  the  shape  of  a  cat  assumed  com- 
mand over  these  animals  in  various  districts,  and  that  when 
those  wicked  beings  pleased  they  could  compel  all  the  cats  be- 
longing to  their  division  to  attack  those  of  some  other  district. 
The  same  was  said  of  rats ;  and  rat-expellers,  when  command- 
ing a  colony  of  those  troublesome  and  destructive  animals  to 
emigrate  to  some  other  place,  used  to  address  their  'billet'  to 
the  infernal  rat  supposed  to  hold  command  over  the  rest.  In  a 
curious  pamphlet  on  the  power  of  bardic  compositions  to  charm 
and  expel  rats,  lately  published,  Mr.  Eugene  O'Curry  states 
that  a  degraded  priest,  who  was  descended  from  an  ancient 
family  of  hereditary  bards,  was  enabled  to  expel  a  colony  of 
rats  by  the  force  of  satire!" 

Hence,  of  course,  Shakespeare's  reference  to  rhyming  Irish 
rats  to  death. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  Irish  Fairy  Lore  well  deserves  to 
have  been  called  by  Mr.  Alfred  Nutt,  one  of  the  leading 
authorities  on  the  subject,  "as  fair  and  bounteous  a  harvest  of 
myth  and  romance  as  ever  flourished  among  any  race." 

References  : 

Ales.  Carmlchael:  Carmina  Gadelica;  David  Comyn:  The  Boyish 
Exploits  of  Finn;  the  Periodical,  "Folklore";  Lady  Gregory:  Cuchu- 
lain  of  Muirthemne,  Gods  and  Fighting  Men ;  Miss  Eleanor  Hull :  The 
Cuchulain  Saga  in  Irish  Literature ;  Douglas  Hyde :  Beside  the  Fire, 
(a  collection  of  Irish  Gaelic  Folk  Stories),  Leahhar  Sgeulaicheachta^ 
(Folk  Stories  in  Irish);  "Irish  Penny  Journal";  Patrick  Kennedy: 
The  Fireside  Stories  of  Ireland,  Legendary  Fictions  of  the  Irish  Celt ; 
Standish  Hayes  O'Grady:  Silva  Gadelica;  Wood-Martin:  Traces  of 
the  Elder  Faiths  in  Ireland,  Pagan  Ireland;  W.  Y.  Wentz:  Tlie 
Fairy  Faith  in  Celtic  Countries ;  Lady  Wilde :  Charms,  Incantations, 
etc. ;  Celtic  articles  in  Hastings*  Dictionary  of  Religion  and  Ethics. 


IRISH  WIT  AND  HUMOR 

By  Charles  L.  Graves. 


NO  record  of  the  glories  of  Ireland  would  be  complete 
without  an  effort,  however  inadequate,  to  analyze  and 
illustrate  her  wit  and  humor.  Often  misunderstood,  misrep- 
resented, and  misinterpreted,  they  are  nevertheless  universally 
admitted  to  be  racial  traits,  and  for  an  excellent  reason.  Other 
nations  exhibit  these  qualities  in  their  literature,  and  Ireland 
herself  is  rich  in  writers  who  have  furnished  food  for  mirth. 
But  her  special  pre-eminence  resides  in  the  possession  of  what, 
to  adapt  a  famous  phrase,  may  be  called  an  anima  naturaliter 
jocosa.  Irish  wit  and  Irish  humor  are  a  national  inheritance. 
They  are  inherent  in  the  race  as  a  whole,  independent  of  edu- 
cation or  culture  or  comfort.  The  best  Irish  sayings  are 
the  sayings  of  the  people;  the  greatest  Irish  humorists  are  the 
nameless  multitude  who  have  never  written  books  or  found  a 
place  in  national  dictionaries  of  biography.  None  but  an 
Irishman  could  have  coined  that  supreme  expression  of  con- 
tempt: "I  wouldn't  be  seen  dead  with  him  at  a  pig-fair,"  or 
rebuked  a  young  barrister  because  he  did  not  "squandher  his 
carcass"  {i.  e.,  gesticulate)  enough.  But  we  cannot  trace  the 
paternity  of  these  sayings  any  more  than  we  can  that  of  the 
lightning  retort  of  the  man  to  whom  one  of  the  "quality"  had 
given  a  glass  of  whisky.  "That's  made  another  man  of  you, 
Patsy,"  remarked  the  donor.  "  'Deed  an'  it  has,  sor,"  Patsy 
flashed  back,  "an*  that  other  man  would  be  glad  of  another 
glass."  It  is  enough  for  our  purpose  to  note  that  such  sayings 
are  typically  Irish  and  that  their  peculiar  felicity  consists  in 
their  combining  both  wit  and  humor. 

To  what  element  in  the  Irish  nature  are  we  to  attribute  this 
joyous  and  illuminating  gift?  No  one  who  is  not  a  Gaelic 
scholar  can  venture  to  dogmatize  on  this  thorny  subject.  But, 
setting  philology  and  politics  aside,  it  is  hard  to  avoid  the 
conclusion  that  Ireland  has  gained  rather  than  lost  in  this 
respect  by  the  clash  of  races  and  languages.  Gaiety,  we  arc 
told,  is  not  the  predominating  characteristic  of  the  Celtic  tem- 
perament, nor  is  it  reflected  in  the  prose  and  verse  of  the  "old 


IRISH  WIT  AND  HUMOR 


299 


ancient  days"  that  have  come  down  to  us.  Glamour  and  magic 
and  passion  abound  in  the  lays  and  legends  of  the  ancient  Gael, 
but  there  is  more  melancholy  than  mirth  in  these  tales  of  long 
ago.  Indeed,  it  is  interesting  to  note  in  connection  with  this 
subject  that  the  younger  school  of  Irish  writers  associated  with 
what  is  called  the  Celtic  Renascence  have,  with  very  few  excep- 
tions, sedulously  eschewed  anything  approaching  to  jocosity, 
preferring  the  paths  of  crepuscular  mysticism  or  sombre  real- 
ism, and  openly  avowing  their  distaste  for  what  they  consider 
to  be  the  denationalized  sentiment  of  Moore,  Lever,  and  Lover. 
To  say  this  is  not  to  disparage  the  genius  of  Yeats  and  Synge; 
it  is  merely  a  statement  of  fact  and  an  illustration  of  the  eternal 
dualism  of  the  Irish  temperament,  which  Moore  himself 
realized  when  he  wrote  of  "Erin,  the  tear  and  the  smile  in 
thine  eye." 

A  reaction  against  the  Donnybrook  tradition  was  inevitable 
and  to  a  great  extent  wholesome,  since  the  stage  Irishman  of  the 
transpontine  drama  or  the  music-halls  was  for  the  most  part  a 
gross  and  unlovely  caricature,  but,  like  all  reactions,  it  has 
tended  to  obscure  the  real  merits  and  services  of  those  who 
showed  the  other  side  of  the  medal.  Lever  did  not  exagger- 
ate more  than  Dickens,  and  his  portraits  of  Galway  fox- 
Imnters  and  duellists,  of  soldiers  of  fortune,  and  of  Dublin 
undergraduates  were  largely  based  on  fact.  At  his  best  he 
was  a  most  exhilarating  companion,  and  his  pictures  of  Irish 
life,  if  partial,  were  not  misleading.  He  held  no  brief  for  the 
landlords,  and  in  his  later  novels  showed  a  keen  sense  of  their 
shortcomings.  The  plain  fact  is  that,  in  considering  the  literary 
glories  of  Ireland,  we  cannot  possibly  overlook  the  work  of 
those  Irishmen  who  were  affected  by  English  influences  or 
wrote  for  an  English  audience. 

Anglo-Irish  humorous  literature  was  a  comparatively  late 
product,  but  its  efflorescence  was  rapid  and  triumphant.  The 
first  great  name  is  that  of  Goldsmith,  and,  though  deeply  in- 
fluenced in  technique  and  choice  of  subjects  by  his  association 
with  English  men  of  letters  and  by  his  residence  in  Eng- 
land, in  spirit  he  remained  Irish  to  the  end — generous,  im- 
pulsive, and  improvident  in  his  life;  genial,  gay,  and  tender- 
hearted in  hrs  works.    The  Vicar  of  Wakefield  was  Dr. 


300 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


Primrose,  but  he  might  just  as  well  have  been  called  Dr. 
Shamrock.  No  surer  proof  of  the  pre-eminence  of  Irish 
wit  and  humor  can  be  found  than  in  the  fact  that,  Shakespeare 
alone  excepted,  no  writers  of  comedy  have  held  the  boards 
longer  or  more  triumphantly  than  Goldsmith  and  his  brother 
Irishman,  Sheridan.  She  Stoops  to  Conquer,  The  Rivals,  The 
School  for  Scandal,  and  The  Critic  represent  the  sunny  side 
of  the  Irish  genius  to  perfection.  They  illustrate,  in  the  most 
convincing  way  possible,  how  the  debt  of  the  world  to  Ireland 
has  been  increased  by  the  fate  which  ordained  that  her  choicest 
spirits  should  express  themselves  in  a  language  of  wider  appeal 
than  the  ancient  speech  of  Erin. 

On  the  other  hand,  English  literature  and  the  English  tongue 
have  gained  greatly  from  the  influence  exerted  by  writers  famil- 
iar from  their  childhood  with  turns  of  speech  and  modes  of  ex- 
pression which,  even  when  they  are  not  translations  from  the 
Gaelic,  are  characteristic  of  the  Hibernian  temper.  The  late 
Dr.  P.  \V.  Joyce,  in  his  admirable  treatise  on  English  as  spoken 
in  Ireland,  has  illustrated  not  only  the  essentially  bilingual  char- 
acter of  the  Anglo-Irish  dialect,  but  the  modes  of  thought 
which  it  enshrines.  There  is  no  better  known  form  of  Irish 
humor  than  that  commonly  called  the  "Irish  bull,"  which  is  too 
often  set  down  to  lax  thinking  and  faulty  logic.  But  it  is  the 
rarest  thing  to  encounter  a  genuine  Irish  "bull"  which  is  not 
picturesque  and  at  the  same  time  highly  suggestive.  Take,  for 
example,  the  saying  of  an  old  Kerry  doctor  who,  when  con- 
versing with  a  friend  on  the  high  rate  of  mortality,  observed, 
"Bedad,  there's  people  dyin'  who  never  died  before."  Here  a 
truly  illuminating  result  was  attained  by  the  simple  device  of 
using  the  indicative  for  the  conditional  mood — as  in  Juvenal's 
famous  comment  on  Cicero's  second  Philippic:  Antoni  gladios 
potiiit  contemnere  si  sic  omnia  dixisset.  The  Irish  "bull"  is  a 
heroic  and  sometimes  successful  attempt  to  sit  upon  two  stools 
at  once,  or,  as  an  Irishman  put  it,  "Englishmen  often  make 
'bulls,'  but  the  Irish  'bull'  is  always  pregnant." 

Though  no  names  of  such  outstanding  distinction  as  those 
of  Goldsmith  and  Sheridan  occur  in  the  early  decades  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  the  spirit  of  Irish  comedy  was  kept  vigor- 
ously alive  by  Maria  Edgeworth,  William  Maginn,  Francis 


IRISH  WIT  AND  HUMOR 


301 


Mahony  (Father  Prout),  and  William  Carleton.  Sir  Walter 
Scott's  splendid  tribute  to  the  genius  of  Maria  Edgeworth  is 
regarded  by  some  critics  as  extravagant,  but  it  is  largely  con- 
firmed in  a  most  unexpected  quarter.  Turgenief,  the  great 
Russian  novelist,  proclaimed  himself  her  disciple,  and  has  left 
it  on  record  that  but  for  her  example  he  might  never  have 
attempted  to  give  literary  form  to  his  impressions  of  the  classes 
in  Russia  corresponding  to  the  poor  Irish  and  the  squireens  and 
the  squires  of  county  Longford.  Maginn  and  Mahony  were 
both  scholars — the  latter  happily  called  himself  "an  Irish 
potato  seasoned  with  Attic  salt'' — wrote  largely  for  English 
periodicals,  and  spent  most  of  their  lives  out  of  Ireland.  In 
the  writings  of  all  three  an  element  of  the  grotesque  is  ob- 
servable, tempered,  however,  in  the  case  of  Mahony,  with  a 
vein  of  tender  pathos  which  emerges  in  his  delightful  "Bells  of 
Shandon."  Maginn  was  a  wit,  Mahony  was  the  hedge-school- 
master in  excelsiSj  and  Carleton  was  the  first  realist  in  Irish 
peasant  fiction.  But  all  alike  drew  their  best  inspiration  from 
essentially  Irish  themes.  The  pendulum  has  swung  back 
slowly  but  steadily  since  the  days  when  Irish  men  of  letters 
found  it  necessary  to  accommodate  their  genius  to  purely  Eng- 
lish literary  standards.  Even  Lever,  though  he  wrote  for  the 
English  public,  wrote  mainly  about  Ireland.  So,  too,  with  his 
contemporary  Le  Fanu,  whose  reputation  rests  on  a  double 
basis.  He  made  some  wonderful  excursions  into  the  realm 
of  the  bizarre,  the  uncanny,  and  the  gruesome.  But  in  the 
collection  known  as  The  Purcell  Papers  will  be  found  three 
short  stories  which  for  exuberant  drollery  and  "diversion" 
have  never  been  excelled.  That  the  same  man  could  have 
written  Uncle  Silas  and  The  Quare  Gander  is  yet  another  proof 
of  the  strange  dualism  of  the  Irish  character. 

The  record  of  the  last  fifty  years  shows  an  uninterrupted 
progress  in  the  invasion  of  English  belles  lettres  by  Irish 
writers.  Outside  literature,  perhaps  the  most  famous  sayer 
of  good  things  of  our  times  was  a  simple  Irish  parish  priest, 
the  late  Father  Healy.  Of  his  humorous  sayings  the  number 
is  legion;  his  wit  may  be  illustrated  by  a  less  familiar  ex- 
ample— his  comment  on  a  very  tall  young  lady  named  Lynch : 
"Nature  gave  her  an  inch  and  she  took  an  ell."  In  the  House 


302 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


of  Commons  today  there  is  no  greater  master  of  irony  and 
sardonic  humor  than  his  namesake,  Mr.  Tim  Healy.  On  one 
occasion  he  remarked  that  Lord  Rosebery  was  not  a  man  to 
go  tiger-shooting  with — except  at  the  Zoo.  On  another,  being 
anxious  to  bring  an  indictment  against  the  "Castle"  regime  in 
Dublin  and  finding  the  way  blocked  by  a  debate  on  Uganda, 
he  successfully  accomplished  his  purpose  by  a  judicious  geo- 
graphical transference  of  names,  and  convulsed  the  House  by 
a  speech  in  which  the  nomenclature  of  Central  Africa  was 
applied  to  the  government  of  Ireland. 

But  wit  and  humor  are  the  monopoly  of  no  class  or  calling 
in  Ireland.  They  flourish  alike  among  car-drivers  and  K.  C.'s, 
publicans  and  policemen,  priests  and  parsons,  beggars  and 
peers.  It  is  a  commonplace  of  criticism  to  deny  these  qualities 
in  their  highest  form  to  women.  But  this  is  emphatically 
untrue  of  Ireland,  and  was  never  more  conclusively  disproved 
than  by  the  recent  literary  achievements  of  her  daughters. 
The  partnership  of  two  Irish  ladies,  Miss  Edith  Somerville 
and  Miss  Violet  Martin,  has  given  us,  in  Some  Experiences  of 
an  Irish  R.  M.  (i.  e..  Resident  Magistrate),  the  most  delicious 
comedy,  and  in  The  Real  Charlotte  the  finest  tragi-comcdy, 
that  have  come  out  of  Great  Britain  in  the  last  thirty  years. 
The  R.  M.,  as  it  is  familiarly  called,  is  already  a  classic,  but 
the  Irish  comedie  humaine — to  use  the  phrase  in  the  sense 
of  Balzac — is  even  more  vividly  portrayed  in  the  pages  of 
The  Real  Charlotte.  Humor,  genuine  though  intermittent, 
irradiates  the  autumnal  talent  of  Miss  Jane  Barlow,  and  the 
long  roll  of  gifted  Irishwomen  who  have  contributed  to  the 
gaiety  of  nations  may  be  closed  with  the  names  of  Miss  Hunt, 
author  of  Folk  Tales  of  Breffny;  of  Miss  Purdon  and  Miss 
Winifred  Letts,  who  in  prose  and  verse,  respectively,  have 
moved  us  to  tears  and  laughter  by  their  studies  of  Leinster 
peasant  life;  and  of  "Moira  O'Neill"  (Mrs.  Skrine),  the  incom- 
parable singer  of  the  Glens  of  Antrim.  To  give  a  full  list  of 
the  living  Irish  writers,  male  and  female,  who  are  engaged  in 
the  benevolent  work  of  driving  dull  care  away  would  be  im- 
possible within  the  space  at  our  command.  But  we  cannot  end 
without  recognition  of  the  exhilarating  extravaganzas  of 


IRISH  WIT  AND  HUMOX 


303 


"George  A.  Birmingham"  (Canon  Hannay),  the  freakish  and 
elfin  muse  of  James  Stephens,  and  the  coruscating  wit  of  F.  P. 
Dunne,  the  famous  Irish-American  humorist,  whose  "Mr. 
Dooley"  is  a  household  word  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic 


Kbteeences  : 


Goldsmith :  Vicar  of  Wakefield,  She  Stoops  to  Conquer ;  Sheridan : 
The  Rivals,  The  School  for  Scandal,  The  Critic;  R.  Edgeworth: 
Essay  on  Irish  Bulls;  M.  Edgeworth:  Castle  Rackrent,  The  Ab- 
sentee; Maginn:  Miscellanies  in  Prose  and  Verse;  Carleton;  Traits 
and  Stories  of  the  Irish  Peasantrj';  Mahony  (Father  Trout):  Re- 
liques  of  Father  Prout;  John  and  Michael  Banim:  Tales  of  the 
O'Hara  Family;  Lover:  Legends  and  Stories  of  Ireland,  Handy 
Andy ;  Lever :  Harry  Lorrequer,  Charles  O'Malley,  Lord  Kilgobbin ;  Le 
Fanu:  The  Purcell  Papers;  Barlow:  Bogland  Studies,  Irish  Idylls, 
Irish  Neighbours ;  Birmingham :  The  Seething  Pot,  Spanish  Gold,  The 
Major's  Niece,  The  Red  Hand  of  Ulster,  General  John  Regan ;  Steph- 
ens; The  Crock  of  Gold,  Here  are  Ladies;  Hunt:  The  Folk  Tales 
of  Breffny;  Purdon:  The  Folk  of  Furry  Farm;  Somerville  and 
Ross:  The  Real  Charlotte,  Some  Experiences  of  an  Irish  R.  M.,  All 
on  the  Irish  Shore,  Dan  Russel  the  Fox. 


THE  IRISH  THEATRE 


By  Joseph  Hollovvay. 


HE  Irish  theatre  and  secular  drama  may  be  said  to  begin 


1  with  the  production  of  James  Shirley's  historical  play, 
St.  Patrick  for  Ireland,  in  Werburgh  Street  Theatre,  about 
1G36-7;  and  though  Dublin  was  a  great  school  for  acting,  and 
supplied  many  of  the  best  players  to  the  English  stage,  such 
as  Ouin,  Macklin,  Peg  Woffington,  Miss  O'Neill,  and  hosts  of 
others,  it  never  really  possessed  a  creative  theatre  (save  at 
the  Capel  Street  Theatre  for  a  few  years  during  the  Grattan 
Parliament)  until  the  modern  movement  in  Ireland  came  into 
being  and  the  Abbey  Theatre  became  its  headquarters. 

Of  course,  innumerable  plays  by  Irish  writers  were  written, 
but  most  of  them  were  not  distinctively  Irish  in  character; 
and  the  names  of  Goldsmith,  Sheridan,  O'Keeffe,  Farquhar, 
Sheridan  Knowles,  Oscar  Wilde,  and  dozens  of  others  will 
always  be  remembered  as  great  Irish  writers  for  the  stage. 
And  when  fine  impersonators  of  Irish  character  like  Tyrone 
Power,  John  Drew,  or  Barney  Williams  arrived,  there  were 
always  to  be  found  several  clever  writers  to  fit  them  with 
parts,  the  demand  always  creating  the  supply. 

Even  before  Dion  Boucicault  took  to  writing  Irish  dramas 
of  a  more  palatable  and  less  "stage-Irish"  character  than  those 
of  his  immediate  predecessors,  some  excellent  plays,  Irish  in 
character  and  tone,  had  from  time  to  time  found  their  way  to 
the  stage.  However,  Boucicault  sweetened  our  stage  by  the 
production  of  The  Colleen  Bawn,  Arrah-na-Pogue,  and  The 
Shaughraun,  and  showed  by  his  rollicking  impersonations  of 
Myles,  Shan,  and  Conn,  how  good-humored,  hearty,  and  self- 
sacrificing  Irish  boys  in  humble  life  can  be.  He  had  great 
technical  knowledge  of  stagecraft,  and  that  has  helped  to 
make  his  Irish  plays  live  in  the  popular  goodwill  right  up 
to  today. 

A  revolt  against  Boucicault's  Irish  boys,  all  fun  and  frolic, 
and  charming  colleens,  who  could  do  no  wrong,  has  made  our 
modern  playwrights  go  to  the  other  extreme;  so  that  now  we 
find  our  stage  peopled  with  peasants,  cruel,  hard,  and  for- 


THE  IRISH  THI^ATRE 


305 


bidding  for  the  most  part,  and  with  colleens  who  are  the 
reverse  of  lovable  in  thought  or  act.  Neither  picture  is  quite 
true  of  our  people.  What  is  really  wanted  is  the  happy 
medium,  which  few,  if  any,  of  our  new  playwrights  have  yet 
given  us. 

If  our  great  popular  Irish  drama  has  yet  to  come,  I  think 
the  Fays  have  made  it  possible  to  say  that  a  distinct  and 
really  fine  dramatic  school  has  arisen  in  Ireland,  evolved  out 
of  their  wonderful  skill  in  teaching,  producing,  and  acting; 
and  if  we  are  not  always  really  delighted  with  what  our  play- 
wrights give  us,  the  almost  perfect  way  in  which  the  plays  are 
served  up  by  the  actors  invariably  wholly  satisfies.  It  is  the 
actors  who  have  made  the  Abbey  Theatre  famous,  and  not  the 
plays.  Such  acting  as  theirs  cast  a  spell  over  all  who  see  them. 
What  pleasing  memories  do  the  names  of  W.  G.  Fay,  Frank 
J.  Fay,  Dudley  Digges,  Sara  Allgood,  Arthur  Sinclair,  Maire 
O'Neill,  Maire  ni  Shuiblaigh,  J.  M.  Kerrigan,  Fred  O'Dono- 
van,  Eileen  O'Doherty,  Una  O'Connor,  Eithne  Magee,  Nora 
Desmond,  and  John  Connolly  recall ! 

With  the  production  of  W.  B.  Yeats's  poetic  one-act  play. 
The  Land  of  Heart's  Desire,  at  the  Avenue  Theatre,  London, 
on  March  29,  1894,  began  the  modern  Irish  dramatic  move- 
ment. When  the  poet  had  tasted  the  joys  of  the  footlights,  he 
longed  to  see  an  Irish  Literary  Theatre  realized  in  Ireland. 
Five  years  later,  in  the  Antient  Concert  Rooms,  Dublin,  on 
May  9,  1899,  his  play,  The  Countess  Cathleen,  was  produced, 
and  his  desire  gratified.  The  experiment  was  tried  for  three 
years  and  then  dropped;  plays  by  Yeats,  Edward  Martyn, 
George  Moore,  and  Alice  Milligan  were  staged  with  English- 
trained  actors  in  the  casts;  and  a  Gaelic  play — the  first  ever 
presented  in  a  theatre  in  Ireland — was  also  given  during  the 
third  season.  It  was  The  Tzvisting  of  the  Rope,  by  Dr.  Douglas 
Hyde,  and  was  played  at  the  Gaiety  Theatre,  Dublin,  on  Octo- 
ber 21,  1901,  by  a  Gaelic  Amateur  Dramatic  Society  coached 
by  W.  G.  Fay.  The  author  filled  the  principal  part  with 
distinction. 

It  was  while  rehearsing  this  play  that  the  thought  came  to 
Fay :  "Why  not  have  my  little  company  of  Irish-born  actors — 
the  Ormond  Dramatic  Society — appear  in  plays  by  Irish  v/riters 


S06 


THE  GI.ORIES  OF  IRELAND 


instead  of  in  the  ones  they  have  been  giving  for  years ?^ 
And  the  thought  soon  ripened  into  realization.  His  brother, 
Frank,  had  dreamed  of  such  a  company  since  he  r«ad  of 
the  small  beginnings  out  of  which  the  Norwegian  Theatre  had 
grown ;  and  just  then,  seeing  some  of  "^E's"  (George  Russell's) 
play,  Deirdre,  in  the  Ail  Ireland  Review,  he  asked  the  author  if 
he  would  allow  them  to  produce  it,  and,  consent  being  given, 
the  company  put  it  into  rehearsal  at  once.  "JE"  got  for  them 
from  Yeats  Kathleen-Ni-H oulihan,  to  make  up  the  programme. 
Thus  it  was  that  this  company  of  amateurs  and  poets,  now 
known  as  the  Abbey  Players,  came  into  existence,  and  at  St. 
Teresa's  Hall,  Clarendon  Street,  Dublin,  gave  their  first  per- 
formance on  April  2,  1902. 

Shortly  afterwards  they  took  a  hall  at  the  back  of  a  shop 
in  Camden  Street,  where  they  rehearsed  and  gave  a  few  public 
performances.  On  "JE'*  declining  to  be  their  president,  Frank 
Fay  suggested  the  name  of  W.  B.  Yeats,  and  he  was  elected, 
and  in  that  way  came  again  into  the  movement  in  which  he  has 
figured  so  largely  ever  since. 

The  company  played  occasionally  in  the  Molesworth  Hall, 
and  produced  there,  amongi  other  pieces,  Synge's  In  the 
Shadow  of  the  Glen  (October  8,  1903)  and  Riders  to  the  Sea 
(February  25,  1904);  Yeats's  The  Hour  Glass  (March  14, 
1903)  and  The  King's  Threshold  (October  8,  1903)  ;  Lady 
Gregory's  Twenty-five  (March  14, 1903)  ;  and  Padraic  Colum's 
Broken  Soil  (December  3,  1903). 

On  March  26,  1904,  the  company  paid  a  flying  one-day  visit 
to  the  Royalty,  London,  and  Miss  A.  E.  F.  Horniman,  who 
had  given  Shaw,  Yeats,  and  Dr.  John  Todhunter  their  first 
real  start  as  playwrights  at  the  Avenue,  London,  in  March- 
April,  1894  (Shaw  had  had  his  first  play,  Widowers'  Houses, 
played  by  the  Independent  Theatre  in  1892),  saw  the  perform- 
ance, and  was  so  impressed  that  she  thought  she  would  like  to 
find  a  suitable  home  for  such  talent  in  Dublin,  and  fixed  upon 
the  old  Mechanics*  Institute  and  its  surrounding  buildings, 
and  there  the  Abbey  Theatre  soon  afterwards — on  December 
27 f  1904 — came  into  existence. 

In  writing  of  this  Irish  dramatic  movement,  one  must 
always  bear  in  mind  that  it  was  Yeats  who  first  conceived  the 


THE  IRISH  THEATRE 


307 


idea  of  such  a  movement;  the  Fays  who  founded  the  school 
of  Irish  acting;  and  Miss  Horniman  who,  hke  a  fairy  god- 
mother, waved  the  wand,  and  gave  it  a  habitation  and  a 
name — the  Abbey  Theatre — and  endowed  it  for  six  years. 

Play  followed  play  with  great  rapidity,  and  dramatic  socie- 
ties sprang  up  all  over  the  country,  playing  home-made  pro- 
ductions in  Gaelic  and  English.  All  Ireland  seemed  to  be 
play-acting  and  play-writing;  so  much  so  that  Frank  Fay  was 
heard  to  say  that  "he  thought  everyone  had  a  play  in  his 
pocket,  and  that  anyone  in  the  street  could  be  picked  up  and 
shaped  into  an  actor  or  actress  with  a  little  training,  Ireland 
was  so  teeming  with  talent!" 

Dramatic  Ireland  had  slumbered  for  a  long  while,  and 
awoke  with  tremendous  vigor  for  work.  New  dramatists 
sprang  up  in  all  parts  of  Ireland ;  The  Ulster  Literary  Theatre 
started  in  Belfast;  The  Cork  Dramatic  Society,  in  Cork;  The 
Theatre  of  Ireland,  in  Dublin;  and  others  in  Galway  and 
Waterford  soon  followed.  In  Dublin  at  present  more  than 
half  a  dozen  dramatic  societies  are  continually  producing  new 
plays  and  discovering  new  acting  talent.  There  are  also  two 
Gaelic  dramatic  societies.  And  nearly  every  town  in  Ireland 
now  has  its  own  dramatic  class  and  its  own  dramatists.  All 
this  activity  has  come  about  within  the  last  ten  or  twelve 
years,  where,  before,  in  many  places,  drama  and  acting  were 
almost  unknown. 

Many  Gaelic  societies  throughout  the  country  put  on  Gaelic 
plays  by  Dr.  Douglas  Hyde,  Pierce  Beasley,  Thomas  Haynes, 
Canon  Peter  O'Leary,  and  others;  and  the  Oireachtas  (the 
Gaelic  musical  and  literary  festival)  held  each  year  in  Dublin 
usually  presents  several  Irish  plays  and  offers  prizes  for  new 
ones  at  each  festival. 

Of  all  the  Irish  playwrights  who  have  arisen  in  recent  years, 
Lady  Gregory  has  produced  most  and  W.  B.  Yeats  is  the  most 
]ioetic.  He  is  more  a  lyric  poet  than  a  dramatist,  and  is  never 
satisfied  with  his  work  for  the  stage,  but  keeps  eternally  chop- 
ping and  changing  it.  His  Kathleen-Ni-HouUhan,  though  a 
dream-play,  always  appeals  to  an  audience  of  Irish  people. 
Perhaps  his  one-act  Deirdre  is  the  nearest  approach  to  real 
drama  he  has  done.    Some  of  Lady  Gregory's  earlier  one-act 


(21) 


308 


THE  GLORIES  OE  IRELAND 


farces,  such  as  The  Workhouse-Ward,  are  very  amusing;  The 
Rising  of  the  Moon  is  a  little  dramatic  gem,  and  The  Gaol  Gate 
is  touched  with  genuine  tragedy.  Synge  wrote  only  one  play — 
Riders  to  the  Sea — that  acts  well.  The  others  are  admired  by 
critics  for  the  strangeness  of  their  diction  and  the  beauty  of 
the  nature-pictures  scattered  through  them.  His  much-dis- 
cussed Playboy  of  the  Western  World  has  become  famous  for 
the  rows  it  has  created  at  home  and  abroad  from  its  very  first 
production  on  January  26,  1907.  William  Boyle,  who  gets 
to  the  heart  of  those  he  writes  about,  has  produced  the  most 
popular  play  of  the  movement  in  The  Eloquent  Dempsey, 
and  a  perfectly  constructed  one  in  The  Building  Fund. 
W.  F.  Casey's  two  plays — The  Man  Who  Missed  the  Tide 
and  The  Suburban  Groove — are  both  popular  and  actable. 
Padraic  Colum's  plays — The  Land  and  Broken  Soil  (the 
latter  rewritten  and  renamed  The  Fiddler's  House) — are 
almost  idyllic  scenes  of  country  life.  Lennox  Robinson's 
plays  are  harsh  in  tone,  but  dramatically  effective,  and  T.  C. 
Murray's  Birthright  and  Maurice  Harte  are  fine  dramas,  well 
constructed  and  full  of  true  knowledge  of  the  people  he 
writes  about.  Seumas  O'Kelly  has  written  two  strong  dramas 
in  The  Shuiler's  Child  and  The  Bribe,  and  Seumas  O'Brien 
one  of  the  funniest  Irish  farces  ever  staged  in  Duty.  R.  J. 
Ray's  play,  The  Casting  Out  of  Martin  Whelan,  is  the  best 
this  dramatist  has  as  yet  given  us,  and  George  Fitzmaurice's 
The  Country  Dressmaker  has  the  elements  of  good  drama 
in  it.  St.  John  G.  Ervine  has  written  a  very  human 
drama  in  Mixed  Marriage.  He  hails  from  the  north  of  Ire- 
land ;  but  Rutherford  Mayne  is  the  best  of  the  Northern  play- 
wrights, and  his  plays,  The  Drone  and  The  Turn  of  the  Road, 
are  splendid  homely  county  Down  comedies. 

Bernard  Shaw's  John  BulVs  Other  Island,  as  Irish  plays  go, 
is  a  fine  specimen ;  Canon  Hannay  has  written  two  successful 
comedies,  Eleanor's  Enterprise  and  General  John  Regan — the 
latter  not  wholly  to  the  taste  of  the  people  of  the  west. 
James  Stephens  and  Jane  Barlow  have  also  tried  their  hands 
at  playwriting,  with  but  moderate  success.  Perhaps  the  mod- 
ern drama  that  made  the  most  impression  when  first  played 
was  The  Heather  Fiela,  by  Edward  Martyn.  It  gripped  and 


THJ:  IRISH  THEJATRK 


309 


remains  a  lasting  memory  with  all  who  saw  it  in  1899.  But  I 
think  I  have  written  enough  to  show  that  the  Irish  Theatre  of 
today  is  in  a  very  alive  condition,  and  that  if  the  great  National 
Dramatist  has  not  yet  arrived,  he  is  sure  to  emerge.  When 
that  time  comes,  the  actors  are  here  ready  to  interpret  such 
work  to  perfection. 

An  article,  however  brief,  on  the  Irish  Theatre,  would  be 
incomplete  without  mention  of  the  world-famous  tragedians, 
John  Edward  MacCullough,  Lawrence  Patrick  Barrett,  and 
Barry  Sullivan ;  of  genial  comedians  like  Charles  Sullivan  and 
Hubert  O'Grady;  of  sterling  actors  like  Shiel  Barry,  John 
Brougham,  Leonard  Boyne,  J.  D.  Beveridge,  and  Thomas  Ner- 
ney;  or  of  operatic  artists  like  Denis  O'Sullivan  and  Joseph 
O'Mara — many  of  whom  have  passed  away,  but  some,  for- 
tunately, are  with  us  still. 

Refebences  : 

John  Genest :  Some  Account  of  the  English  Stage  from  the  Restora- 
tion to  1830  (1832;  vol.  10  is  devoted  to  the  Irish  Stage)  ;  Chetwood: 
General  History  of  the  Stage,  more  particularly  of  the  Irish  Theatre 
(Dublin,  1749);  Molloy;  Romance  of  the  Irish  Stage;  Baker:  Bio- 
graphia  Dramatica  (Dublin,  1782);  Hitchcock:  An  Historical  View 
of  the  Irish  Stage  from  its  Earliest  Period  down  to  the  Season  of 
1788;  Doran:  Their  Majesties*  Servants,  or  Annals  of  the  English 
Stage  (London,  1865) ;  Hughes:  The  Pre- Victorian  Drama  in  Dublin; 
The  History  of  the  Theatre  Royal,  Dublin  (Dublin,  1870)  ;  Levey 
and  O'Rourke:  Annals  of  the  Theatre  Royal  (Dublin,  1880)  ;  O'Neill : 
Irish  Theatrical  History  (Dublin,  1910)  ;  Brown :  A  Guide  to  Books 
on  Ireland  (Dublin,  1912);  Lawrence:  The  Abbey  Theatre  (in  the 
Weekly  Freeman,  Dublin,  Dec,  1912),  Origin  of  the  Abbey  Theatre 
(in  Sinn  Fein,  Dublin,  Feb.  14,  1914)  ;  Weygandt:  Irish  Plays  and 
Playwrights  (London,  1913)  ;  Lady  Gregory:  Our  Irish  Theatre  (Lon- 
don, 1914)  ;  Bourgeois:  John  M.  Synge  and  the  Irish  Theatre  (Lon- 
don, 1913)  ;  Moore:  Hail  and  Farewell,  3  vols.  (London,  1911-1914)  ; 
Esmore;  The  Ulster  Literary  Theatre  (in  the  Lady  of  the  House, 
Dul'Iin,  Nov.  15,  1913) ;  the  Reviews,  Beltaine  (1899-1900)  ana 
Samhain  (1901-1903). 


IRISH  JOURNALISTS 


By  Michael  MacDonagh. 


KE  most  splendid  testimony  to  the  Irish  genius  in  jour- 


1  naHsm  is  afforded  by  the  London  press  of  the  opening 
decades  of  the  twentieth  century.  One  of  the  greatest  news- 
paper organizers  of  modern  times  is  Lord  Northcliffe.  As 
the  principal  proprietor  and  guiding  mind  of  both  the  Times 
and  the  Daily  Mail,  he  directly  influences  public  opinion,  from 
the  steps  of  the  Throne  and  the  door  of  the  Cabinet,  to  the 
errand  boy  and  the  servant  maid.  T.  P.  O'Connor,  M.  P.,  is 
the  most  popular  writer  on  current  social  and  political  topics, 
and  so  amazing  is  his  versatility  that  every  subject  he  touches 
is  illumined  by  those  fine  qualities,  vision  and  sincerity. 
The  most  renowned  of  political  writers  is  J.  L.  Garvin  of  the 
Pall  Mall  Ga::ette  and  the  Observer.  By  his  leading  articles  he 
has  done  as  much  as  the  late  Joseph  Chamberlain  by  his 
speeches  to  democratize  and  humanize  the  old  Tory  party  of 
England.  The  authoritative  special  correspondent,  studying 
at  first  hand  all  the  problems  which  divide  the  nations  of 
Europe,  and  knowing  personally  most  of  its  rulers  and  states- 
men, is  E.  J.  Dillon  of  the  Daily  Telegraph.  And  when  the 
quarrels  of  nations  are  transferred  from  the  chancelleries  to 
the  stricken  field  there  is  no  one  among  the  war  correspond- 
ents more  enterprising  and  intrepid  in  his  methods,  or  more 
picturesque  and  vivid  with  his  pen,  than  M.  H.  Donohoe  of 
the  Daily  Chronicle.  All  these  men  are  Irish.  Could  there  be 
more  striking  proof  of  the  natural  bent  and  aptitude  of  the 
Irish  mind  for  journalism? 

Dean  Swift  was  the  mightiest  journalist  that  ever  stirred 
the  sluggish  soul  of  humanity.  Were  he  alive  today  and  had 
he  at  his  command  the  enormous  circulation  of  a  great  daily 
newspaper,  he  would  keep  millions  in  a  perpetual  mental  fer- 
ment, such  was  the  ferocious  indignation  into  which  he  was 
aroused  by  wrong  and  injustice  and  his  gift  of  savage  ironical 
expression.  Swift,  as  a  young  student  in  Trinity  College, 
Dublin,  saw  the  birth  of  the  first  ofifspring  of  the  Irish  mind 
in  journalism.   The  Dublin  News  Letter  made  its  appearance 


IRISH  JOURNALISTS 


311 


in  June,  1685,  and  was  published  every  three  or  four  days  for 
the  circulation  of  news  and  advertisements.  Only  one  copy  of 
the  first  issue  of  this,  the  earliest  of  Irish  newspapers,  is  extant. 
It  is  included  in  the  Thorpe  collection  of  tracts  in  the  Royal 
Dublin  Society.  Dated  August  26,  1685,  it  consists  of  a  single 
leaf  of  paper  printed  on  both  sides,  and  contains  just  one  item 
of  news,  a  letter  brought  by  the  English  packet  from  London, 
and  two  local  advertisements.  As  I  reverently  handled  it,  I 
was  thrilled  by  the  thought  that  from  this  insignificant  little 
seed  sprang  the  great  national  organ,  the  Freeman's  Journal; 
the  Press  of  the  United  Irishmen;  the  Nation  of  the  Young 
Irelanders;  the  United  Ireland  of  the  Land  League;  the  Irish 
World  and  the  Boston  Pilot  of  the  American  Irish;  and  the 
Irish  Independent,  the  first  half-penny  Dublin  morning  paper, 
and  the  most  widely  circulated  of  Irish  journals.  If  Swift 
did  not  write  for  the  Dublin  News  Letter,  he  certainly  wrote 
for  the  Examiner,  a  weekly  miscellany  published  in  the  Irish 
capital  from  1710  to  1713,  and  the  first  journal  that  endeav- 
ored to  create  public  opinion  in  Ireland.  It  was  at  Swift's 
instigation  that  this  paper  was  started,  and  he  was  doubtless 
encouraged  to  suggest  it  by  the  success  that  attended  his  arti- 
cles in  the  contemporary  London  publication  of  the  same  name, 
the  Tory  Examiner,  in  which  his  journalistic  genius  was  fully  • 
revealed.  As  it  has  been  expressively  put,  he  wrote  his  friends, 
Harley  and  St.  John,  into  a  firm  grip  of  power,  and  thus,  as  in 
other  ways,  contributed  his  share  to  the  inauguration  and 
maintenance  of  that  policy  which  in  the  last  four  years  of 
Queen  Anne  so  materially  recast  the  whole  European  situation. 
About  the  same  time  there  appeared  in  London  the  earliest 
forms  of  the  periodical  essay  in  the  Tatler  and  the  Spectator, 
which  exhibit  the  comprehensiveness  of  the  Irish  temperament 
in  writing  by  affording  a  contrast  between  the  Irish  force  and 
vehemence  of  Swift  and  the  Irish  play  of  kindly  wit  and 
tender  pathos  in  the  deft  and  dainty  periods  of  Richard  Steele. 

Dr.  Charles  Lucas  was,  even  more  than  Swift  perhaps,  the 
precursor  of  that  type  of  Irish  publicist  and  journalist,  of 
which  there  have  been  many  splendid  examples  since  then  in 
Ireland,  England,  and  America.  Lucas  first  started  the 
Censor,  a  weekly  journal,  in  1748.  Within  two  years  his  paper 


312 


THE  GLORIES  OP  IRELAND 


was  suppressed  for  exciting  discontent  with  the  government, 
and  to  avoid  a  prosecution  he  fled  to  England.  In  1763  the 
Freeman's  Journal  was  established  by  three  Dublin  merchants. 
Lucas,  who  had  returned  from  a  long  exile  and  was  a  member 
of  the  Irish  parliament,  contributed  to  it,  sometimes  anony- 
mously but  generally  over  the  signature  of  "A  Citizen"  or 
"Civis."  The  editor  was  Henry  Brooks,  novelist,  poet,  and 
playwright.  His  novel,  The  Fool  of  Quality,  is  still  read.  His 
tragedy.  The  Earl  of  Essex,  was,  wrongly,  supposed  to  contain 
a  precept,  *'Who  rules  o'er  freemen  should  himself  be  free," 
which  led  to  the  more  famous  parody  of  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson, 
"Who  drives  fat  oxen  should  himself  be  fat."  The  object  of 
Lucas  and  Brooke,  as  journalists,  was  to  awaken  national  senti- 
ment, by  teaching  that  Ireland  had  an  individuality  of  her  own 
independently  of  England.  But  they  were  more  concerned  with 
the  assertion  of  the  constitutional  rights  of  the  parliament  of 
the  Protestant  colony  as  against  the  domination  of  England. 
Therefore,  the  first  organ  of  Irish  Nationality,  representative  of 
all  creeds  and  classes,  was  the  Press,  the  newspaper  of  the 
United  Irishmen,  which  was  started  in  Dublin  in  1797,  by 
Arthur  O'Connor,  the  son  of  a  rich  merchant  who  had  made 
his  money  in  London.  Its  editor  was  Peter  Finnerty,  bom  of 
humble  parentage  at  Loughrea,  afterwards  a  famous  parlia- 
mentary reporter  for  the  London  Morning  Chronicle,  and  its 
most  famous  contributor  was  Dr.  William  Drennan,  the  poet, 
who  first  called  Ireland  "the  Emerald  Isle." 

Irishmen  did  not  become  prominently  associated  with  Ameri- 
can journalism  until  after  the  Famine  and  the  collapse  of  the 
Young  Ireland  movement  in  1848.  The  journalist  whom  I 
regard  as  having  exercised  the  most  fateful  influence  on  the 
destinies  of  Ireland  was  Charles  Gavan  Duflfy,  the  founder 
and  first  editor  of  the  Nation,  a  newspaper  of  which  it  was 
truly  and  finely  said  that  it  brought  a  new  soul  into  Erin. 
Among  its  contributors,  who  afterwards  added  lustre  to  the 
journalism  of  the  United  States,  was  John  Mitchel.  In  the 
Southern  Citizen  and  the  Richmond  Enquirer  he  supported  the 
South  against  the  North  in  the  Civil  War.  The  Rev.  Abram 
Joseph  Ryan,  who  was  associated  with  journalism  in  New 
Orleans,  not  only  acted  as  a  Catholic  chaplain  with  the  Con- 


IRISH  JOURNALISTS 


313 


federate  army,  but  sang  of  its  hopes  and  aspirations  in  tuneful 
verse.  Serving  in  the  army  of  the  North  was  Charles  G. 
Halpine,  whose  songs  signed  ''Private  Miles  O'Reilly"  were 
very  popular  in  those  days  of  national  convulsion  in  the 
United  States.  Halpine's  father  had  edited  the  Tory  news- 
paper, the  Dublin  Evening  Mail;  and  Halpine  himself,  after 
the  war,  edited  the  Citizen  of  New  York,  famous  for  its 
advocacy  of  reforms  in  civic  administration.  Perhaps  the  two 
most  renowned  men  in  Irish-American  journalism  were  John 
Boyle  O'Reilly  of  the  Boston  Pilot  and  Patrick  Ford  of  the 
Irish  World.  O'Reilly  was  a  troop-sergeant  in  the  10th 
Hussars  (Prince  of  Wales's  Own),  and  during  the  Fenian 
troubles  of  1866  had  eighty  of  his  men  ready  armed  and 
mounted  to  take  out  of  Island  Bridge  Barracks,  Dublin,  at  a 
given  signal,  to  aid  the  projected  insurrection.  Detected,  he 
was  brought  to  trial,  summarily  convicted,  and  sentenced  to  be 
shot.  This  sentence  was  commuted  to  twenty-five  years'  penal 
servitude;  but  O'Reilly  survived  it  all  to  become  a  brilliant 
man  of  letters  and  make  the  Boston  Pilot  one  of  the  most 
influential  Irish  and  Catholic  newspapers  in  the  United  States. 
Ford,  who  had  served  his  apprenticeship  as  a  compositor  in 
the  office  of  William  Lloyd  Garrison  at  Boston,  founded  the 
Irish  World  in  1870.  This  newspaper  gave  powerful  aid  to, 
the  Land  League.  A  special  issue  of  1,650,000  copies  of  the 
Irish  World  was  printed  on  January  11,  1879,  for  circulation 
in  Ireland;  and  money  to  the  amount  of  $600,000  altogether 
was  sent  by  Ford  to  the  headquarters  of  the  agitation  in 
Dublin.  A  journalist  of  a  totally  different  kind  was  Edwin 
Lawrence  Godkin.  Born  in  County  Wicklow,  the  son  of  a 
Presbyterian  clergyman,  Godwin  in  1865  established  the  Nation 
in  New  York  as  an  organ  of  independent  thought ;  and  for 
thirty-five  years  he  filled  a  unique  position,  standing  aside 
from  all  parties,  sects,  and  bodies,  and  yet  permeating  them  all 
with  his  sane  and  restraining  philosophy. 

In  Canada,  Thomas  D'Arcy  Magee  won  fame  as  a  journal- 
ist on  the  New  Era  before  he  became  even  more  distinguished 
as  a  parliamentarian.  When  the  history  of  Australian  jour- 
nalism is  written  it  will  contain  two  outstanding  Irish  names : 
Daniel  Henry  Deniehy,  who  died  in  1865,  was  called  by  Bui- 


3U 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


wer  Lytton  "the  Australian  Macaulay"  on  account  of  his 
brilliant  writings  as  critic  and  reviewer  in  the  press  of  Vic- 
toria. Gerald  Henry  Supple,  another  Dublin  man,  is  also 
remembered  for  his  contributions  to  the  Age  and  the  Argus 
of  Melbourne.  In  India  one  of  the  first — if  not  the  first — 
English  newspapers  was  founded  by  a  Limerick  man,  named 
Charles  Johnstone,  who  had  previously  attained  fame  as  the 
author  of  Chrysal,  or  the  Adventures  of  a  Guinea,  and  who 
died  at  Calcutta  about  1800. 

Stirring  memories  of  battle  and  adventure  leap  to  the  mind 
at  the  names  of  those  renowned  war  correspondents,  William 
Howard  Russell,  Edmond  O'Donovan,  and  James  J.  O'Kelly. 
Russell,  a  Dublin  man,  was  the  first  newspaper  representative 
to  accompany  an  army  into  the  field.  He  saw  all  the  mighty 
engagements  of  the  Crimea — Alma,  Balaclava,  Inkerman, 
Sebastopol — not  from  a  distance  of  60  or  80  miles,  which  is 
the  nearest  that  correspondents  are  now  allowed  to  approach 
the  front,  but  at  the  closest  quarters,  riding  through  the  lines 
on  his  mule,  and  seeing  the  engagements  vividly,  so  that  he 
was  able  to  describe  them  in  moving  detail  for  readers  of 
the  Times,  O'Donovan — son  of  Dr.  John  O'Donovan,  the 
distinguished  Irish  scholar  and  archaeologist — was  in  the 
service  of  the  London  Daily  News.  That  dashing  cam- 
paigner— as  his  famous  book,  The  Merv  Oasis,  shows  him 
to  have  been — ^perished  with  Hicks  Pasha's  Army  in  the  Sudan 
in  November,  1883.  At  the  same  time  James  O'Kelly,  also 
of  the  Daily  News,  was  lost  in  the  desert,  trying  to  join  the 
forces  of  the  victorious  Sudanese  under  the  Madhi.  Ten 
years  before  that  he  had  accomplished,  for  the  New  York 
Herald,  the  equally  daring  and  hazardous  feat  of  joining  the 
Cuban  rebels  in  revolt  against  Spain.  He  escaped  the  perils 
of  the  Mambi  Land  and  the  Sudan,  and  survived  to  serve  Ire- 
land for  many  years  as  a  Nationalist  member  in  the  British 
parliament.  John  Augustus  O'Shea,  better  known,  perhaps, 
as  "The  Irish  Bohemian",  also  deserves  remembrance  for  his 
quarter  of  a  century's  work  as  special  correspondent  in 
Europe — including  Paris  during  the  siege — for  the  London 
Standard. 


IRISH  JOURNALISTS 


315 


Indeed,  no  matter  to  what  side  of  journalism  we  turn,  we 
find  Irishmen  filling  the  foremost  and  the  highest  places.  John 
Thaddeus  Delane,  under  whose  editorship  the  Times  became 
for  a  time  the  most  influential  newspaper  in  the  world,  was 
of  Irish  parentage.  The  first  editor  of  the  Illustrated  London 
News  (1842) — one  of  the  pioneers  in  the  elucidation  of  news 
by  means  of  pictures — was  an  Irishman,  Frederick  Bayley. 
Among  the  projectors  of  Punch,  and  one  of  its  earliest  con- 
tributors, was  a  King's  county  man,  Joseph  Sterling  Coyne. 
The  founder  of  the  Liverpool  Daily  Post  (1855),  the  first 
penny  daily  paper  in  Great  Britain,  was  Michael  Joseph 
Whitty,  a  Wexford  man.  His  son,  Edward  M.  Whitty,  was 
the  originator  of  that  interesting  feature  of  English  and  Irish 
journalism,  the  sketch  of  personalities  and  proceedings  in  par- 
liament. Of  the  editors  of  the  Athenaeum — for  many  years 
the  leading  English  organ  of  literary  criticism — one  of  the 
most  famous  was  Dr.  John  Doran,  who  was  of  Irish  parent- 
age. "Dod'*  is  a  familiar  household  word  in  the  British  Par- 
liament. It  is  the  name  of  the  recognized  guide  to  the  careers 
and  political  opinions  of  Lords  and  Commons.  Its  founder 
was  an  Irishman,  Charles  Roger  Dod,  who  for  twenty-three 
years  was  a  parliamentary  reporter  for  the  Times.  And  what 
name  sheds  a  brighter  light  on  the  annals  of  British  journal- 
ism for  intellectual  and  imaginative  force  than  that  of  Justin 
MacCarthy,  novelist  and  historian,  as  well  as  newspaper 
writer  ? 

At  home  in  Ireland  the  name  of  Gray  is  inseparably  asso- 
ciated with  the  Freeman's  Journal.  Under  the  direction  of 
Dr.  John  Gray  this  newspaper  became  in  the  sixties  and  seven- 
ties the  most  powerful  organ  of  public  opinion  in  Ireland ;  and 
in  the  eighties  it  was  raised  still  higher  in  ability  and  influence 
by  his  son  and  successor,  Edmund  Dwyer  Gray.  In  the  south  of 
Ireland  the  most  influential  daily  newspaper  is  the  Cork  Ex- 
aminer,  which  was  founded  in  1841  by  John  Francis  Maguire, 
who  wrote  in  1868  The  Irish  in  America.  It  is  doubtful 
whether  any  country  ever  produced  a  more  militant  and  able 
political  journal  than  was  United  Ireland  in  the  stormy  years 
during  which  it  was  edited  by  William  O'Brien  as  the  organ 
of  the  Land  League. 


316 


the:  glories  o^'  Ireland 


The  Irish  mood  is  gregarious,  expansive,  glowing,  and  eager 
to  keep  in  intimate  touch  with  the  movements  and  affairs  of 
humanity.  That,  I  think,  is  the  secret  of  its  success  in 
journalism. 

References  : 

Madden:  Irish  Periodical  Literature  (1867);  Andrews:  English 
Journalism  (1855);  North:  Newspaper  and  Periodical  Press  of  the 
United  SUtes  (1884) ;  MacDonagh;  The  Reporter's  Gallery  (1913). 


THE  IRISH  LITERARY  REVIVAL 


By  Horatio  S.  Krans,  Ph.  D. 

IN  the  closing  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century  and  in  the 
opening  years  of  the  twentieth,  no  Hterary  movement  has 
awakened  a  liveHer  interest  than  the  Irish  Literary  Revival,  a 
movement  which,  by  its  singleness  and  solidarity  of  purpose, 
stood  alone  in  a  time  of  confused  literary  aims  and  tendencies. 
Movements,  like  individuals,  have  their  ancestry,  and  that  of 
the  Irish  Literary  Revival  is  easily  traced.  It  descends  from 
Callanan  and  Walsh,  and  from  the  writers  of  '48.  It  is  to  this 
descent  that  the  lines  in  William  Butler  Yeats's  "To  Ireland  in 
Coming  Times'*  allude : 

Know  that  I  would  accounted  be 
True  brother  of  that  company, 
Who  sang  to  sweeten  Ireland's  wrong. 
Ballad  and  story,  rann  and  song. 

With  the  passing  of  the  mid-nineteenth-century  writers,  the 
old  movement  waned,  and  in  the  field  of  Irish  letters  there 
was,  in  the  phrase  of  a  famous  bull,  nothing  stirring  but  stag- 
nation. A  witty  critic  of  the  period,  commenting  upon  this 
unhappy  state  of  affairs,  declared  that,  though  the  love  of 
learning  in  Ireland  might  still  be,  as  the  saying  went,  inde- 
structible, it  was  certainly  imperceptible.  But  after  the  fall 
of  Parnell  a  new  spirit  was  stirring.  Politics  no  longer 
absorbed  the  whole  energy  of  the  nation.  Groups  of  men 
inspired  with  a  love  of  the  arts  sprang  up  here  and  there.  In 
1890  Yeats  proved  himself  a  real  prophet  when  he  wrote: 
"A  true  literary  consciousness — national  to  the  centre — seems 
gradually  to  be  forming  out  of  all  this  disguising  and  pretti- 
fying, this  penumbra  of  half-culture.  We  are  preparing  likely 
enough  for  a  new  Irish  literary  movement — like  that  of  '48 — 
that  will  show  itself  in  the  first  lull  in  politics." 

Responsive  to  the  need  of  the  young  writers  associated  with 
Yeats,  the  National  Literary  Society  was  founded  in  Dublin  in 
1892,  and  a  year  later  London  Irishmen,  among  them  men 
already  distinguished  in  letters,  founded  in  the  English 


318 


tHE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


metropolis  the  Irish  Literary  Society.  From  the  presses  in 
Dublin,  in  London,  and  in  New  York  as  well,  books  began  to 
appear  in  rapid  succession — slender  volumes  of  verse,  novels, 
short  stories,  essays,  plays,  translations,  and  remakings  of 
Irish  myths  and  legends,  all  inspired  by,  and  closely  related 
to,  the  past  or  the  present  of  Ireland,  voicing  an  essentially 
national  spirit  and  presenting  the  noblest  traits  of  Irish  life 
and  character. 

Not  content  with  the  organization  of  the  two  literary  socie- 
ties, Yeats,  with  courage  and  relentless  tenacity,  cast  about  to 
realize  his  long-cherished  dream  of  a  theatre  that  should 
embody  the  ideals  of  the  Revival.  In  Lady  Gregory,  and  in 
Edward  Martyn,  an  Irishman  of  large  means,  who  with  both 
pen  and  purse  lent  a  willing  hand,  he  found  two  ardent 
laborers  for  his  vineyard.  George  Moore,  who  in  the  event 
proved  a  fish  out  of  water  in  Ireland,  Yeats  and  Martyn  con- 
trived to  lure  from  his  London  lodgings  and  his  cosmopolitan 
ways,  and  to  enlist  in  the  theatrical  enterprise.  The  practical 
knowledge  of  the  stage  which  this  gifted  enfant  terrible  of 
literature  contributed  was  doubtless  of  great  value  in  the  early 
days  of  the  dramatic  adventure,  though  Moore's  free  thoughts, 
frank  speech,  and  mordant  irony  brought  an  element  of  dis- 
cord into  Dublin  literary  circles,  which  may  well  have  left 
Yeats  and  his  associates  with  a  feeling  that  they  had  paid  too 
dear  for  a  piper  to  whose  tunes  they  refused  to  dance.  Be 
that  as  it  may,  in  1899  Yeats's  dream  was  measurably  realized, 
and  the  Irish  Literary  Theatre  established,  to  be  succeeded  a 
little  later  by  the  Irish  National  Theatre  Society.  Enough, 
however,  of  the  dramatic  aspect  of  the  Revival,  which  receives 
separate  treatment  elsewhere  in  these  pages,  as  does  also  the 
dramatic  work  of  certain  of  the  authors  considered  here. 

From  what  has  already  been  said,  it  should  be  plain  that  in 
the  last  decade  of  the  last  century  the  ranks  of  the  Irish  Lit- 
erary Revivalists  filled  rapidly,  and  that  the  movement  was 
really  under  way.  The  renascent  spirit  took  various  form^. 
To  one  group  of  poets  the  humor,  pathos,  and  tragedy  of 
peasant  life  deeply  appealed,  and  found  expression  in  a  poetry 
distinctively  and  unmistakably  national,  from  which  a  kind  of 
pleasure  could  be  drawn  unlike  anything  else  in  other  litera- 


the:  IRISH  LITERARY  REVIVAL 


319 


tures.  In  this  group  Alfred  Perceval  Graves  and  Moira 
O'Neill  cannot  pass  unmentioned.  Who  would  ask  anything 
racier  in  its  kind  than  the  former's  "Father  O'Flynn"? 

Of  priests  we  can  offer  a  charmin'  variety. 
Far  renowned  for  larnin'  and  piety, 
Still  I'd  advance  you  without  impropriety. 
Father  O'Flynn  as  the  flower  of  them  all. 
Here's  a  health  to  you,  Father  O'Flynn, 
Slainte  *  and  slainte,  and  slainte  agin. 
Powerfullest  preacher. 

And  tinderest  teacher,  ^ 
And  kindliest  creature  in  Old  Donegal. 

Or  was  the  homing  instinct,  the  homesick  longing  for  the 
old  sod,  ever  more  truly  rendered  than  in  Moira  O'Neill's 
song  of  the  Irish  laborer  in  England  ? 

Over  here  in  England  I'm  helpin'  wi'  the  hay. 
An'  I  wish  I  was  in  Ireland  the  livelong  day; 
Weary  on  the  English,  an'  sorra  take  the  wheat ! 
Och !  Corrymeela  an'  the  blue  sky  over  it; 

D'ye  mind  me  now,  the  song  at  night  is  mortial  hard  to  raise. 
The  girls  are  heavy-goin'  here,  the  boys  are  ill  to  plase; 
When  ones't  I'm  out  this  workin'  hive,  'tis  I'll  be  back  again — 
Aye,  Corrymeela  in  the  same  soft  rain. 

Here,  too,  should  be  named  Jane  Barlow,  whose  poems  and 
stories  are  faithful  imaginative  transcripts  of  the  face  of 
nature  and  the  hearts  of  men  as  she  knew  them  in  Connemara. 
Finally  there  is  William  Butler  Yeats,  who,  on  the  whole, 
is  the  representative  man  of  the  Revival.  Except  in  the  trans- 
lator's sphere,  his  writings  have  given  him  a  place  in  almost 
all  the  activities  of  this  movement.  As  a  lyric  poet,  he  has 
expressed  the  moods  of  peasant  and  patriot,  of  mystic,  sym- 
bolist, and  quietist,  and  it  is  safe  to  say  that  in  lyric  poetry 
no  one  of  his  generation  writing  in  English  is  his  superior. 
We  cannot  resist  the  pleasure  of  quoting  here  from  his  "Innis- 
free",  which  won  the  praise  of  Robert  Louis  Stevenson,  and 


♦"Your  health." 


320 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


which,  if  not  the  high  mark  of  Yeats's  achievement,  is  still  a 
flawless  thing  in  its  way: 

I  will  arise  and  go  now,  and  go  to  Innisfree, 
And  a  small  cabin  build  there,  of  clay  and  wattles  made; 

Nine  bean  rows  will  I  have  there,  a  hive  for  the  honey  bee. 
And  live  alone  in  the  bee-loud  glade. 

And  I  shall  have  some  peace  there,  for  peace  comes  dropping  slow. 
Dropping  from  the  veils  of  the  morning  to  where  the  cricket  sings; 

There  midnight's  all  a  glimmer,  and  noon  a  purple  glow. 
And  evening  full  of  the  linnets'  wings. 

In  this  place,  and  for  convenience  sake,  it  may  be  permitted 
to  speak  of  aspects  of  Yeats's  work  other  than  that  by  virtue 
of  which  he  is  to  be  classed  with  the  group  we  have  just  con- 
sidered. In  his  narrative  poem,  "The  Wanderings  of  Usheen", 
as  well  as  in  his  plays  and  lyrics,  he  is  of  the  best  of  those — 
among  them  w^e  may  mention  by  the  way  Dr.  John  Todhunter, 
Xora  Hopper  (Mrs.  W.  H.  Chesson),  and  William  Larminie — 
who  have  revealed  to  our  day  the  strange  beauty  of  the 
ancient  creations  of  the  Gaelic  imagination.  In  prose  he 
has  written  short  stories,  a  novelette,  John  Sherman  and 
Dhoya,  and  essays  that  reveal  a  subtle  critical  insight,  and 
a  style  of  beautiful  finish  and  grace,  suggestive  of  the  style  of 
Shelley's  Defence  of  Poetry.  Yeats's  plays  constitute  a  con- 
siderable and  an  important  part  of  his  work,  but  these  must  be 
reserved  for  treatment  elsewhere  in  this  book.  In  prefaces  to 
anthologies  of  prose  and  verse  of  his  editing,  in  the  pages  of 
reviews,  and  elsewhere,  he  appears  as  the  chief  apologist  of 
the  aims  of  the  Literary  Revival,  and  in  particular  of  the 
methods  of  the  dramatists  of  the  Revival.  Whatever  he  has 
touched  he  has  lifted  into  the  realm  of  poetry,  and  this  is  in 
large  measure  true  of  his  prose,  which  proceeds  from  the 
poet's  point  of  view  and  breathes  the  poetic  spirit.  A  man  of 
rare  versatility,  a  finished  artist  with  a  scrupulous  artistic  con- 
science, he  has  done  work  of  high  and  sustained  quality,  and 
is  certain  to  exert  a  good  and  lasting  influence  upon  the  litera- 
ture of  his  country. 

In  a  literary  movement  in  the  "Isle  of  Saints",  we  look 
naturally  for  religious  poetr)%  and  we  do  not  look  in  vain. 


THE  IRISH  LITERARY  REVIVAL 


321 


This  poetry,  chiefly  Catholic,  has  a  quaHty  of  its  own  as  dis- 
tinctive as  that  of  the  writers  of  the  group  we  have  just  left. 
Now  it  voices  a  naive,  devoted  simplicity  of  Christian  faith; 
now  it  attains  to  a  high  and  keen  spirituality ;  now  it  is  mystic 
and  pagan.  Among  the  religious  poets,  Lionel  Johnson  easily 
stands  first — perhaps  the  Irish  poet  of  firmest  fibre  and  most 
resonant  voice  of  his  generation.  A  note  of  high  courage  and 
of  spiritual  triumph  rings  through  his  verse,  even  from  the 
shadow  of  the  wings  of  the  dark  angel  that  gives  a  title  to  one 
of  the  saddest  of  his  poems.  Often  he  strikes  a  note  of 
genuine  religious  ecstasy  and  exaltation  rarely  heard  in  Eng- 
lish, as  in  "Te  Martyrum  Candidatus" : 

Ah,  see  the  fair  chivalry  come,  the  companions  of  Christ! 

White  Horsemen,  who  ride  on  white  horses,  the  Knights  of  God ! 
They,  for  their  Lord  and  their  Lover  who  sacrificed 

All,  save  the  pleasure  of  treading  where  He  first  trod. 

TI  ese  through  the  darkness  of  death,  the  dominion  of  night. 
Swept,  and  they  woke  in  white  places  at  morning  tide : 

They  saw  with  their  eyes,  and  sang  for  joy  of  the  sight. 
They  saw  with  their  eyes  the  Eyes  of  the  Crucified. 

Among  the  men  of  the  Revival,  no  personality  is  stronger 
or  more  attractive  than  that  of  G.  W.  Russell — as  he 
is  always  called — who  may  be  regarded  as  the  hero  of  George 
Moore's  Hail  and  Farewell,  and  who  alone  in  that  gallery  of 
wonderful  pen-portraits  looks  forth  with  complete  amiability. 
He  is  a  pantheist,  a  mystic,  and  a  visionary,  with  what  would 
seem  a  literal  and  living  faith  in  many  gods,  though  strongly 
prepossessed  in  favor  of  the  ancient  divinities  of  the  Gael,  now 
long  since  in  exile.  Impressive  and  striking  by  a  certain  spir- 
itual integrity,  so  to  say,  **2E"  unites  gifts  and  faculties 
seldom  combined.  He  is  a  poet  of  rare  subtlety,  a  painter  in 
whose  genius  so  good  a  judge  as  George  Moore  believed,  and 
a  most  practical  man  of  affairs,  who,  as  assistant  to  Sir  Horace 
Plunkett,  held  up  the  latter's  hands  in  his  labors  on  behalf  of 
co-operative  dairies  and  the  like.  His  poems  have  their  roots 
in  a  pantheism  which  half  reveals  the  secrets  of  an  indwelling 
spirit,  speaking  alike  "from  the  dumb  brown  lips  of  earth" 
and  from  the  passions  of  the  heart  of  man. 


322 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


Of  novelists,  both  men  and  women,  the  Irish  Revival  can,  in 
the  words  of  "Father  O'FIynn",  offer  a  charming  variety,  and 
among  their  novels  and  short  stories  are  some  books  of  high 
quality  and  not  a  few  in  a  high  degree  interesting  and  enter- 
taining. To  Standish  O'Grady  we  turn  for  tales,  with  a  kind 
of  bardic  afflatus  about  them,  of  the  hero  age  of  legendary 
Ireland — tales  which  drew  attention  to  the  romantic  Celtic  past 
of  myth  and  saga,  and  must  have  been  an  inspiration  to  more 
than  one  writer  of  the  younger  generation.  In  contrast  to  the 
broad  epic  sweep  and  remote  romantic  backgrounds  of 
O'Grady,  are  the  stories  of  Jane  Barlow,  whose  genre  pictures 
of  peasant  life  in  the  west  of  Ireland,  like  her  poems  men- 
tioned above,  show  how  sympathetically  she  understands  the 
ways  of  thinking,  feeling,  and  acting  of  her  humble  com- 
patriots. A  like  minute  and  faithful  knowledge  is  evident  in 
the  work  of  two  story-tellers  of  the  north,  Seumas  Mac- 
Manus  and  Shan  Bullock.  The  former's  outlook  is  humorous 
and  pathetic.  He  tells  fairy  and  folk  tales  well,  and  is  a  past 
master  of  the  dialect  and  idiom  that  combine  to  give  his  old- 
wives'  yams  an  honest  smack  of  the  soil.  Let  him  who  doubts 
it  read  Through  the  Turf  Smoke  or  Donegal  Fairy  Stories.  If 
Shan  Bullock  walks  the  same  fields  as  Seumas  MacManus,  he 
does  so  with  a  different  air  and  with  a  more  definite  purpose. 
Sometimes  he  turns  to  the  squireens,  small  farmers,  or  small 
country  gentry,  and  lays  bare  the  hardness  and  narrowness 
that  are  a  part  of  their  life.  Or,  again,  in  pictures  whose  sad- 
ness and  gloom  are  lightened,  to  be  sure,  with  humor  or 
warmed  with  love,  he  studies  the  necessitous  life  of  the  poor. 
The  Squireen,  The  Barrys,  and  Irish  Pastorals  2iTt  some  of  his 
representative  books. 

In  the  novel  as  in  poetry  the  ladies  have  worked  side  by 
side  with  their  literary  brethren.  Miss  Hermione  Templeton, 
in  her  Darby  O'Gill,  and  elsewhere,  has  written  pleasantly  and 
gracefully  of  the  fairies.  In  a  very  different  vein  are  the 
novels  of  the  collaborators,  Miss  Somen-ille  and  "Martin  Ross" 
(Miss  Violet  Martin),  over  which  English  and  American  read- 
ers have  laughed  as  heartily  as  their  own  fellow  countrymen. 
The  Experiences  of  an  Irish  R.  M.  remains,  perhaps,  their  best 


the:  IRISH  I.ITERARY  REVIVAL 


323 


book.  The  work  of  these  ladies,  be  it  said  by  the  way,  is  in  the 
Hne  of  descent  from  that  group  of  older  Irish  novelists  who 
wrote  in  the  spirit  of  the  devil-may-care  gentry,  the  novelists 
from  Maxwell  to  Lover  and  Lever,  who  were  ever  questing 
''divilment  and  divarshion,"  and  who  in  their  moods  of  boister- 
ous fun  forgot  the  real  Irishman,  and  presented  in  his  place  a 
caricature — him  of  the  Celtic  screech  and  the  exhilarating 
whack  of  the  shillelagh,  the  famous  stage  Irishman  who  has 
made  occasional  appearances  in  English  literature  from  the 
time  of  Shakespeare's  Henry  V.,  on  through  the  works  of 
Fielding  and  the  plays  of  Sheridan,  to  the  present  moment  of 
writing. 

Of  a  very  different  stripe  from  the  work  of  the  collabo- 
rating ladies  just  mentioned  are  the  novels  of  the  recently 
deceased  Canon  Sheehan — notable  among  them  Luke  Delmege 
and  My  New  Curate — rambling,  diffuse,  and  a  trifle  provincial 
from  the  artistic  standpoint,  but  interesting  as  studies  of  man- 
ners, and  for  the  pictures  they  afford  of  the  priesthood  of 
modern  Ireland  in  the  pleasantest  light.  If  the  stories  of  Miss 
Somerville  and  "Martin  Ross"  are  related  to  the  comic  stories 
of  the  old  novelists  of  the  gentry,  those  of  Canon  Sheehan  must 
be  associated  with  the  work  of  the  older  novelists  who  wrote 
more  or  less  in  the  spirit  of  the  peasantry,  that  is,  with  Gerald 
Griffin,  the  Banim  brothers,  and  William  Carleton,  less  famous 
than  he  deserves  to  be  by  his  Traits  and  Stories  and  a  long 
line  of  novels  and  tales. 

No  survey  of  Irish  novelists,  however  brief,  can  afford 
to  forget  the  Rev.  James  Owen  Hannay  ("George  A.  Bir- 
mingham"), canon  of  St.  Patrick's  Cathedral,  Dublin,  whose 
work  is  as  distinctively  Protestant  in  its  point  of  view  as 
Father  Sheehan's  is  Catholic.  His  more  substantial  novels  are 
a  careful  transcript  of  the  actualities  of  Irish  life  today,  and 
in  them  one  meets,  incognito  but  easily  recognizable,  many 
Irishmen  now  prominent  in  literature  or  politics  in  Ireland. 
Of  his  numerous  books  may  be  mentioned  The  Seething  Pot, 
Hyacinth,  and  Northern  Iron. 

Finally  there  is  George  Moore,  whose  enlistment  in  the 
Revival  was  responsible  for  the  novel  The  Lake  and  the  short 
stories  of  The  Untilled  Field,  and  for  a  largely  autobiographic 


(22) 


324 


THK  GI.ORIES  OF  IREI.AND 


and  entirely  indiscreet  trilogy  entitled  Hail  and  Farewell,  the 
separate  volumes  appearing  as  Ave,  Salve,  Vale,  and  the 
last  of  them  as  late  as  1914.  George  Moore's  anti-Catholic 
bias  is  strong,  but  his  is  the  pen  of  an  accomplished  artist.  He 
has  the  story-teller's  beguiling  gift,  and  he  bristles  with  ideas 
which  his  books  cleverly  embody  and  to  which  the  dramatic 
moments  of  his  novels  give  point  and  relief. 

Not  the  least  important  work  of  the  Irish  Literary  Revival 
has  been  done  by  translators,  who  have  put  into  English  the 
old  Gaelic  romances  and  the  folklore  still  current  among  the 
little  remnant  of  Irish-speaking  country  folk.  Dr.  Douglas 
Hyde  is  in  the  forefront  of  this  group.  He  it  was  who  organ- 
ized the  Gaelic  League,  a  band  of  enthusiasts  zealous  for  the 
revival  of  the  Irish  language  both  as  a  spoken  tongue  and  as  the 
medium  for  a  national  literature,  and  eager,  also,  to  breed  up  a 
race  of  Celtic  scholars.  The  lyrics  in  his  Love  Songs  of  Con- 
nacht  are  full  of  grace,  tenderness,  and  fire,  and  indicate  the 
kind  of  gems  which  he  and  his  fellow  laborers  have  added  to 
the  treasury  of  poetry  in  English.  But  it  is  Lady  Gregory,  espe- 
cially in  her  Cuchulain  of  Muirthemne  and  Gods  and  Firjht'mq 
Men,  who  more  than  any  other  has  found  a  way  to  stir  tbe 
blood  of  readers  of  to-day  by  the  romantic  hero  tales  of  Ire- 
land. From  the  racy  idiom  of  the  dwellers  on  or  about  her 
own  estate  in  Galway,  she  happily  framed  a  style  that  gave  her 
narratives  freshness,  novelty,  and  a  flavor  of  the  soil.  Upon 
the  work  of  scholars  she  drew  heavily  in  making  her  own  ren- 
derings, but  she  has  justified  all  borrowings  by  breathing  into 
her  books  the  breath  and  the  warmth  of  life,  and  her  adapta- 
tion to  epic  purposes  of  the  dialect  of  those  who  still  retain  the 
expiring  habit  of  thinking  in  Gaelic  was  a  real  literary  achieve- 
ment. She  has,  indeed,  in  sins  of  commission  and  of  omission, 
taken  liberties  with  the  old  legends,  but  this  may  render  them 
not  less,  and  perhaps  more,  delightful  to  the  general  reader, 
however  just  complaints  may  be  from  the  standpoint  of  tlie 
scholar. 

Even  so  brief  a  sketch  as  this  may  sufiice  to  bring  home  to 
those  not  already  aware  of  it  a  realization  of  the  delights  to  be 
drawn  from  the  creations  of  a  living  literary  movement,  which 


THH;  IRISH  UTERARY  REVIVAL 


325 


is  perhaps  the  most  notable  of  its  generation,  and  which  has 
gathered  together  a  remarkable  group  of  poets,  novelists,  and 
dramatists,  who,  as  men  and  women,  are  a  most  interesting 
company — a  fact  to  which  even  George  Moore's  Hail  and  Fare- 
well, with  its  quick  eye  for  defects  and  foibles  and  its  ironic 
wit,  bears  abundant  testimony. 


References  : 


Brooke  and  RoUeston:  Treasury  of  Irish  Poetry  (New  York  and 
London,  1900)  ;  Krans ;  William  Butler  Yeats  and  the  Irish  Literary 
Revival  (New  York  and  London,  1904);  Yeats:  Ideas  of  Good 
and  Evil  (London,  1903)  ;  Moore:  Hail  and  Farewell,  3  vols.  (Lon- 
don and  New  York,  1912-1914);  Lady  Gregory:  Our  Irish  Theatre 
(New  York  and  London,  1913)  ;  Weygandt:  Irish  Plays  and  Play- 
wrights (New  York,  1913) ;  Yeats:  Introduction  to  Fairy  and  Folk 
Tales  of  the  Irish  Peasantry  (London,  1889),  Representative  Irish 
Tales  (London,  1890),  Book  of  Irish  Verse  (London,  1895).  There 
is  much  of  interest,  though  chiefly  as  regards  the  drama,  in  the 
reviews,  Beltaine  (London  and  Dublin,  1899-1900)  and  Samhain 
(London  and  Dublin,  1901-1903). 


IRISH  WRITERS  OF  ENGLISH 


By  P.  J.  Lennox,  B.A.,  Litt.D. 
HE  Gaelic  literature  of  Ireland  is  not  only  of  wonderful 


1  volume  and  priceless  worth,  but  is  also  of  great  antiquity, 
whereas  the  English  literature  of  Ireland,  while  also  of  con- 
siderable extent  and  high  value,  is  of  comparatively  modern 
origin.  The  explanation  of  this  fact  is  that  for  more  than  six 
centuries  after  the  Anglo-Norman  invasion  of  1169  the  Irish 
language  continued  to  be  both  the  spoken  and,  with  Latin,  the 
written  organ  of  the  great  mass  of  the  Irish  people,  and  that 
for  nearly  the  whole  of  that  period  those  English  settlers  who 
did  not  become,  as  the  well-known  phrase  has  it,  more  Irish 
than  the  Irish  themselves  by  adopting  the  native  language, 
customs,  and  sentiments,  were  kept  too  busy  in  holding,  de- 
fending, and  extending  their  territory  to  devote  themselves 
to  literary  pursuits.  Hence  we  need  not  wonder  if,  leaving 
out  of  account  merely  technical  works  like  Lionel  Power's 
treatise  on  music,  written  in  1395,  we  find  that  the  English 
literature  of  Ireland  takes  its  comparatively  humble  origin  late 
in  the  sixteenth  century.  For  more  than  two  centuries  there- 
after, owing  to  the  fact  that  the  native  Irish,  because  they  were 
Catholics,  were  debarred  by  law  from  an  education,  the  writing 
of  English  remained  almost  exclusively  in  the  hands  of  mem- 
bers or  descendants  of  the  Anglo-Irish  colony,  who,  with  scarce- 
ly an  exception,  were  Protestants  and  had  as  their  principal 
Irish  seat  of  learning  the  then  essentially  Protestant  institu- 
tion, Trinity  College,  Dublin.  Alien  in  race  and  creed  though 
these  writers  mainly  were,  they  have  nevertheless  spread  a  halo 
of  glory  around  their  adopted  country,  and  have  won  the  ad- 
miration, and  often  the  affection,  of  Irishmen  of  every  shade 
of  religious  and  political  belief.  For  example,  there  is  no  Irish- 
man who  is  not  proud  of  Molyneux  and  Swift,  of  Goldsmith 
and  Burke,  of  Grattan  and  Sheridan.  From  the  nineteenth 
century  onward  Irish  Catholics  have  taken  their  full  share  in 
the  production  of  English  literature.  Here,  however,  it  will 
be  necessary  to  consider  the  writers  of  none  but  the  sixteenth, 
seventeenth,  and  eighteenth  centuries,  as  in  other  pages  of 


IRISH  WRITE:RS  of  ENGUSH 


327 


this  volume  considerable  attention  has  been  given  to  those  of 
later  date. 

I.    SixTEENTPi  Century. 

Richard  Stanyhurst  (1547-1618),  born  in  Dublin  but  edu- 
cated at  Oxford,  is  the  first  representative  of  the  sixteenth 
century  with  v^^hom  we  are  called  upon  to  deal.  He  belonged 
to  a  family  long  settled  in  or  near  Dublin  and  of  some  note  in 
municipal  annals.  Under  the  direction  of  the  Jesuit  martyr, 
Edmund  Campion,  Stanyhurst  wrote  a  Description,  as  well  as 
a  portion  of  the  History,  of  Ireland  for  Holinshed's  Chroni- 
cles, published  in  1577.  He  also  translated  (1582)  the  first 
four  books  of  Virgil  his  Aeneis  into  quantitative  hexameters, 
on  the  unsound  pedantic  principles  which  Gabriel  Harvey  was 
at  that  time  trying  so  hard  to  establish  in  English  prosody; 
but  the  experiment,  which  turned  out  so  badly  in  the  master's 
hands,  fared  even  worse  in  those  of  the  disciple,  and  Stany- 
hurst's  lines  will  always  stand  as  a  noted  specimen  of  inept 
translation  and  ridiculous  versification.  Equally  inartistic  was 
his  version  of  some  of  the  Psalms  in  the  same  metre.  In  Latin 
he  wrote  a  profound  commentary  on  Porphyry,  the  Neo-PIa- 
tonic  mystic.  Stanyhurst,  who  was  uncle  to  James  Ussher,  the 
celebrated  Protestant  archbishop  of  Armagh,  was  himself  a 
convert  to  Catholicity,  and  on  the  death  of  his  second  wife  be- 
came a  priest  and  wrote  in  Latin  some  edifying  books  of  devo- 
tion. Two  of  his  sons  joined  the  Jesuit  order.  He  died  at 
Brussels  in  1618.  Stanyhurst  viewed  Ireland  entirely  from  the 
English  standpoint,  and  in  his  Description  and  History  is,  con- 
sciously or  unconsciously,  greatly  biased  against  the  native 
race. 

If  we  may  take  it  as  certain  that  modern  investigation  is 
correct  in  asserting  that  Thomas  Campion  was  a  native  of 
Dublin,  a  notable  addition  will  have  been  made  to  the  ranks  of 
Irish-born  writers  of  English  at  this  period.  Thomas  Campion 
(1567-1620),  wherever  born,  spent  most  of  his  life  in  London. 
He  was  a  versatile  genius,  for,  after  studying  law,  he  took  up 
medicine,  and,  although  practising  as  a  physician,  he  yet  found 
time  to  write  four  masques  and  many  lyrics  and  to  compose  a 


328 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


goodly  quantity  of  music.  Some  of  his  songs  appeared  as 
early  as  1591.  Among  his  works  is  a  treatise  entitled  Observa- 
tions in  the  Art  of  English  Poesie  (1602),  in  which,  strange 
to  say,  he,  a  born  lyrist,  advocated  unrhymed  verse  and  quanti- 
tative measures,  but  fortunately  his  practice  did  not  usually 
square  with  his  theory.  His  masques  were  written  for  occa- 
sions, such  as  the  marriage  of  Lord  Hayes  (1607),  the  nuptials 
of  the  Princess  Elizabeth  and  the  Elector  Palatine  (1613),  and 
the  ill-starred  wedding  of  Somerset  and  the  quondam  Countess 
of  Essex  in  the  same  year.  In  these  masques  are  embedded 
some  of  his  best  songs ;  others  of  his  lyrics  appeared  in  several 
Bookes  of  Ayres  between  1601  and  1617.  Many  of  them  were 
written  to  music,  sometimes  music  of  his  composing.  Such 
dainty  things  as  "Now  hath  Flora  robb'd  her  bowers"  and 
'TIarke,  all  you  ladies  that  do  sleep"  possess  the  charms  of 
freshness  and  spontaneity,  and  his  devotional  poetry,  especially 
"Awake,  awake,  thou  heavy  Spright"  and  "Never  weather- 
beaten  Saile  more  willing  bent  to  shore",  makes  almost  as 
wide  an  appeal. 

II.   Seventeeth  Century. 

Passing  by  with  regret  the  illustrious  seventeenth  century 
names  of  Philip  O'Sullivan  Beare,  Sir  James  Ware,  Luke  Wad- 
ding, Hugh  Ward,  John  Colgan,  and  John  Lynch,  because  their 
bearers  wrote  in  Latin,  and  those  of  "The  Four  Masters"  and 
Geoffrey  Keating,  because  they  wrote  in  Irish,  we  are  first 
brought  to  a  pause  in  the  seventeenth  century  by  the  imposing 
figure  of  him,  whom,  in  a  later  day,  Johnson  justly  called  the 
"great  luminary  of  the  Irish  [Protestant]  church",  none  other 
than  the  archbishop  of  Armagh  and  primate  of  Ireland,  James 
Ussher  himself.  James  Ussher  (1581-1656),  bom  in  Dublin 
and  among  the  earliest  students  of  the  newly-founded  Trinity 
College,  was  in  intellect  and  scholarship  one  of  the  greatest 
men  that  Ireland  has  ever  produced.  Selden  describes  him 
as  "learned  to  a  miracle"  (ad  miraculum  doctus),  and  Canon 
D'Alton  in  his  History  of  Ireland  says  of  him  that  "he  was  not 
unworthy  to  rank  even  with  Duns  Scotus,  and  when  he  died 
he  left  in  his  own  Church  neither  an  equal  nor  a  second."  De- 


IRISH  WRITERS  01?  ENGLISH 


329 


dining  the  high  office  of  provost  of  Trinity,  Ussher  was  made 
bishop  of  Meath  and  was  afterwards  promoted  to  the  primatial 
see.  His  fine  intellect  was  unfortunately  marred  by  narrow 
religious  views,  and  in  many  ways  he  displayed  his  animus 
against  those  of  his  countrymen  who  did  not  see  eye  to  eye  with 
him  in  matters  of  faith  and  doctrine.  For  example,  it  was  he 
who  in  1626  drew  up  the  Irish  Protestant  bishops*  protest 
against  toleration  for  Catholics,  therein  showing  a  bigotry 
which  consorted  badly  with  his  reputation  as  a  scholar.  On  ac- 
count of  his  well-known  attitude  towards  Catholicism,  he  was 
naturally  unpopular  with  those  who  professed  the  ancient 
creed,  and  hence,  when  the  rebellion  of  1641  broke  out,  much  of 
his  property  was  destroyed  by  the  enraged  insurgents.  His  per- 
son escaped  violence,  for  he  happened  to  be  in  England  at  the 
time  engaged  in  the  vain  task  of  trying  to  effect  an  accommoda- 
tion between  Charles  I.  and  the  English  parliament.  He  never 
returned  to  his  see  and  died  in  London. 

Ussher's  collected  works  fill  seventeen  stately  volumes.  His 
magnum  opus  is  undoubtedly  the  Annales  Veteris  et  Novi 
Testamenti.  It  is  written  in  Latin,  and  is  a  chronological  com- 
pendium of  the  history  of  the  world  from  the  Creation  to  the 
dispersion  of  the  Jews  under  Vespasian.  Published  at  Leyden, 
London,  Paris,  and  Oxford,  it  gained  for  its  author  a  Euro- 
pean fame.  His  books  written  in  English  deal  mostly  with 
theological  or  controversial  subjects,  and  while  they  display 
wide  reading,  great  acumen,  and  keen  powers  of  argumenta- 
tion, they  yet  do  not  do  full  justice  to  his  genius.  Those  which 
he  published  in  Dublin  are  A  Discourse  of  the  Religion  ancient- 
ly professed  by  the  Irish  and  British  (1622),  in  which  he  tried 
to  show  that  the  ritual  and  discipline  of  the  Church  as  origi- 
nally established  in  the  British  Isles  were  in  agreement  with 
the  Church  of  England  and  opposed  to  the  Catholic  Church 
on  the  matters  in  dispute  between  them ;  An  Answer  to  a  Chal- 
lenge made  by  a  Jesuite  in  Ireland  (1624),  in  which  his  aim 
was  to  disprove  the  contention  set  forth  earlier  in  the  same 
year  by  a  Jesuit  that  uniformity  of  doctrine  had  always  been 
maintained  by  the  Catholic  Church;  and  Immanuel,  or  the 
Mysterie  of  the  Incarnation.  He  published  in  England  The 
Originall  of  Bishops,  A  Body  of  Divinitie,  The  Principles  of 


330 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


Christian  Religion,  and  other  works.  So  great  was  Ussher's 
reputation  that  when  he  died  Cromwell  relaxed  in  his  favor 
one  of  the  strictest  laws  of  the  Puritans  and  allowed  him  to  be 
buried  with  the  full  service  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  with 
great  pomp,  in  Westminster  Abbey. 

Among  Ussher's  other  claims  to  distinction,  it  should  be  noted 
that  it  was  he  who  in  1621  discovered  the  celebrated  Book  of 
Kells,  which  had  long  been  lost.  This  marvel  of  the  illu- 
minator's art  passed  with  the  remainder  of  his  collection  of 
books  and  manuscripts  to  Trinity  College,  DubHn,  in  1661,  and 
to  this  day  it  remains  one  of  the  most  treasured  possessions 
of  the  noble  library  of  that  institution. 

Sir  John  Denham  (1615-1669),  a  Dublin  man  by  birth,  took 
an  active  part  on  the  side  of  Charles  I.  against  the  parliament 
during  the  Civil  War,  and  subsequently  was  conspicuous  in  the 
intrigues  that  led  to  the  restoration  of  Charles  II.  In  his  own 
day  he  had  a  great  reputation  as  a  poet.  His  tragedy.  The 
Sophy,  and  his  translation  of  the  Psalms  are  now  forgotten, 
but  he  is  still  remembered  for  one  piece.  Cooper's  Hill,  in 
which  occur  the  well-known  lines  addressed  to  the  River 
Thames : 

O  could  I  flow  like  thee,  and  make  thy  stream 
My  great  example,  as  it  is  my  theme ! 
Though  deep,  yet  clear;  though  gentle,  yet  not  dull; 
Strong,  without  rage;  without  o'erflowing,  full. 

Another  Dublin-born  man  was  Wentworth  Dillon,  Earl 
of  Roscommon  (1633-1684).  He  had  the  good  fortune  to 
win  encomiums  both  from  Dryden  and  from  Pope.  One  of 
his  merits,  as  pointed  out  by  the  latter,  is  that 

In  all  Charles's  days 
Roscommon  only  boasts  unspotted  bays. 

He  translated  from  Virgil,  Lucan,  Horace,  and  Guarini ;  wrote 
prologues,  epilogues,  and  other  occasional  verses;  but  is  now 
principally  remembered  for  his  poetical  Essay  on  Translated 
Verse  (1681),  in  which  he  develops  principles  previously  laid 
down  by  Cowley  and  Denham.  To  his  credit  be  it  said,  he 
condemns  indecency,  both  as  want  of  sense  and  bad  taste.  He 


IRISH  WRITERS  OF  ENGUSH 


331 


was  honored  with  a  funeral  in  Westminster  Abbey.  Johnson 
records  that,  at  the  moment  of  his  death,  Roscommon  uttered 
with  great  energy  and  devotion  the  following  two  lines  from 
his  own  translation  of  the  Dies  Irae: 

My  God,  my  Father,  and  my  Friend, 
Do  not  forsake  me  in  my  end ! 

Robert  Boyle  (1627-1091),  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Royal 
Society  (1662),  was  son  of  the  ''great"  Earl  of  Cork  and  was 
born  at  Lismore,  Co.  Waterford.  He  takes  rank  among  the 
principal  experimental  philosophers  of  his  age,  and  he  cer- 
tainly rendered  valuable  services  to  the  advancement  of  science. 
Most  of  his  writings,  which  are  very  voluminous,  are  naturally 
of  a  technical  character  and  therefore  do  not  properly  belong 
to  literature;  but  his  Occasional  Reflections  on  Several  Siib^ 
jects  (1665),  a  strange  mixture  of  triviality  and  seriousness, 
was  germinal  in  this  sense  that  it  led  to  two  celebrated  jeux 
d'esprit,  namely,  Butler's  Occasional  Reflection  on  Dr.  Charl- 
ton's feeling  a  Dog's  Pulse  at  Gresham  College  and  Swift's 
Pious  Meditation  upon  a  Broomstick,  in  the  Style  of  the 
Honourable  Mr.  Boyle.  Indeed,  one  of  Boyle's  Reflections, 
that  "Upon  the  Eating  of  Oysters",  is  reputed  to  have  rendered 
a  still  more  signal  service  to  literature,  for  in  its  two  concluding 
paragraphs  is  contained  the  idea  which,  under  the  transform- 
ing hand  of  the  master  satirist,  eventually  took  the  world  by 
storm  when  it  appeared,  fully  developed,  as  Gulliver's  Traz'cls. 

His  brother,  Roger  Boyle  (1621-1679),  who  figures  largely 
as  a  soldier  and  a  statesman  in  Irish  and  English  history  under 
his  title  of  Lord  Broghill,  was  an  alumnus  of  Trinity  College, 
Dublin.  During  the  Civil  War  he  was  a  royalist  until  the 
death  of  Charles  L,  when  he  changed  sides  and  aided  Crom- 
well materially  in  his  Irish  campaign.  When  the  Lord  Protec- 
tor died,  Broghill  made  another  right-about-face,  and  cross- 
ing to  his  native  country  worked  so  energetically  and  success- 
fully that  he  made  Ireland  solid  for  the  restoration  of  Charles 
II.  For  this  service  he  was  rewarded  by  being  created  Earl 
of  Orrery.  He  was  the  author  of  six  tragedies  and  two  come- 
dies, some  of  which  when  produced  proved  gratifyingly  popu- 
lar. He  is  noted  for  having  been  the  first  to  write  tragedy  in 


333 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


rhyme,  thereby  setting  an  example  that  was  followed  with 
avidity  for  a  time  by  Dr>'den  and  others.  He  also  wrote 
poems,  a  romance  called  Parthmissa  (1654),  and  a  Treatise  on 
the  Art  of  War  (1677).  From  whatever  point  of  view  con- 
sidered. Lord  Orrerj'  was  a  remarkable  member  of  a  remark- 
able family.  His  son,  John  Boyle,  Earl  of  Cork  and  Orrery 
(1707-1762),  in  virtue  of  his  translation  of  Pliny's  Letters, 
his  Remarks  on  the  Life  and  Writings  of  Swift,  and  his  Letters 
from  Italy,  has  some  claims  to  recognition  in  the  field  of  litera- 
ture. 

Charles  Leslie  (1650-1722),  a  Dubliner  by  birth,  was  son  of 
that  John  Leslie,  bishop  of  Raphoe  and  Clogher,  who  lived 
through  a  whole  century,  from  1571  to  1671,  and  who  was  79 
years  of  age  when  Charles,  his  sixth  son,  was  born.  Educated 
first  at  Enniskillen  and  afterwards  at  Trinity  College,  Dublin, 
Charles  Leslie  studied  law  in  London,  but  eventually  aban- 
doned that  profession  and  entered  the  ministr)^  He  was  of 
a  disputatious  character  and  in  particular  went  to  great  lengths 
in  opposing  the  pro-Catholic  activities  of  James  XL  Never- 
theless, when  the  Revolution  of  1688  came,  he  took  the  side  of 
the  deposed  monarch,  and  loyally  adhered  to  his  Jacobite 
principles  for  the  remainder  of  his  life.  He  even  joined  the 
Old  Pretender  on  the  continent,  and  endeavored  to  convert 
him  to  Protestantism,  but,  failing  therein,  he  returned  to  Ire- 
land, where  he  died  at  Glasslough  in  county  Monaghan.  Many 
years  of  Leslie's  life  were  devoted  to  disputes  with  Catholics, 
Quakers,  Socinians,  and  Deists,  and  the  seven  volumes  which 
his  writings  fill  prove  that  he  was  an  extremely  able  contro- 
versialist. His  best  known  work  is  the  famous  treatise,  A 
Short  and  Easy  Method  "jAth  the  Deists,  published  in  1698. 

The  Irish  note,  tone,  or  temper  is  not  conspicuous  in  any 
of  the  writings  so  far  named  unless  when  it  is  conspicuous  by 
its  absence ;  but  it  appears  plainly,  for  the  first  time,  in  Moly- 
neux's  Case  of  Ireland  being  bound  by  Laws  [made]  in  Eng- 
land Stated  (1698).  William  Molyneux  (1656-1698)  has  al- 
ways ranked  as  an  Irish  patriot.  His  was  one  of  the  spirits 
invoked  by  Grattan  in  his  great  speech  (1782)  on  the  occa- 
sion on  which  he  carried  his  celebrated  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence in  the  Irish  parliament.   When  the  English  Act  of 


IRISH  WRITERS  ENGLISH 


333 


1698,  which  was  meant  to  destroy,  and  did  destroy,  the*  Irish 
woolen  industry,  came  before  the  Irish  house  of  commons 
for  ratification,  Molyneux's  was  the  only  voice  raised  against 
its  adoption.  His  protest  was  followed  by  the  publication  of 
his  Case  Stated,  which  is  a  classic  on  the  general  relations  be- 
tween Ireland  and  England,  and  contained  arguments  so  irre- 
futable that  it  drove  the  English  parliament  to  fury  and  was 
by  that  body  ordered  to  be  burned  by  the  common  hangman. 
It  is  a  remarkable  coincidence  that  Molyneux  opens  his  argu- 
ment by  laying  down  in  almost  identical  words  the  principles 
which  stand  at  the  beginning  of  the  American  Declaration 
of  Independence. 

John  Toland  (1669-1722)  was  born  near  Redcastle,  in  Co. 
Derry,  and  was  at  first  a  Catholic  but  subsequently  became  a 
free-thinker.  His  Christianity  not  Mysterious  (1696)  marks 
an  epoch  in  religious  disputes,  for  it  started  the  deistical  con- 
troversy which  was  so  distinctive  a  feature  of  the  first  half  of 
the  eighteenth  century.  It  shared  a  similar  fate  to  that  of  the 
Case  Stated,  though  on  very  different  grounds,  and  was  ordered 
by  the  Irish  parliament  to  be  burned  by  the  hangman.  Toland 
wrote  many  other  books,  among  which  are  Amyntor  (1699)  ; 
Nasarenus  (1702)  ;  Pantheistic  on;  History  of  the  Druids; 
and  Hypatia.  All  his  books  show  versatility  and  wide  reading 
and  are  characterized  by  a  pointed,  vigorous,  and  aggressive 
style. 

George  Farquhar  (1678-1707),  a  Derry  man,  and  Thomas 
Southerne  (1660-1746),  born  near  Dublin,  were  distinguished 
playwrights,  who  began  their  respective  careers  in  the  seven- 
teenth century.  Farquhar  left  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  as  an 
undergraduate  and  became  an  actor,  but  owing  to  his  acci- 
dental killing  of  another  player  he  left  the  stage  and  secured 
a  commission  in  the  army.  He  soon  turned  his  attention  to 
the  writing  of  plays,  and  was  responsible  in  all  for  eight  come- 
dies. He  has  left  us  some  characters  that  are  very  humorous 
and  at  the  same  time  true  to  life,  such  as  Scrub  the  servant 
in  The  Beaux'  Stratagem  and  Sergeant  Kite  in  The  Recruiting 
Officer.  His  Boniface,  the  landlord  in  the  former  of  these  two 
plays,  has  become  the  type,  as  well  as  the  ordinary  quasi- 
facetious  nickname,  of  an  innkeeper.  He  was  advancing  in  his 


334 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


art,  for  his  last  comedy,  The  Beaux'  Stratagem  (1707),  is 
undoubtedly  his  best,  and  had  he  lived  longer — he  died  before 
he  was  thirty — he  might  have  bequeathed  to  posterity 
something  even  more  noteworthy.  As  Leigh  Hunt  says  of 
him:  "He  was  becoming  gayer  and  gayer,  when  death,  in 
the  shape  of  a  sore  anxiety,  called  him  away  as  if  from  a  pleas- 
ant party,  and  left  the  house  ringing  with  his  jest." 

Southerne  was  also  a  student  of  Trinity  College,  Dublin.  At 
the  age  of  eighteen,  however,  he  left  his  alma  mater,  and  went 
to  London  to  study  law.  This  profession  he  in  turn  abandoned 
for  the  drama.  His  first  play,  The  Persian  Prince,  or  the 
Loyal  Brother,  had  remarkable  success  when  performed,  and 
secured  him  an  ensign's  commission  in  the  army  (1685). 
Here  promotion  came  to  him  rapidly  and  by  1688  he  had  risen 
to  captain's  rank.  The  Revolution  of  that  year,  however,  cut 
off  all  further  hope  of  advancement,  and  he  once  more  turned 
his  attention  to  the  writing  of  plays.  His  productions  number 
ten.  His  tragedies  Isabella,  or  the  Fatal  Marriage  (1694)  and 
Oroonoko  (1696),  both  founded  on  tales  by  Mrs.  Aphra 
Behn,  are  powerful  presentations  of  human  suffering.  His 
comedies  are  amusing,  but  gross.  Southerne  had  business 
ability  enough  to  make  play-writing  pay,  and  the  amounts 
he  received  for  his  productions  fairly  staggered  his  friend  Dry- 
den.  It  is  to  this  faculty  that  Pope  alludes  when  he  says  that 
Southerne  was  one  whom 

heaven  sent  down  to  raise 
The  price  of  prologues  and  of  plays. 

He  was  apparently  of  amiable  and  estimable  character,  for  he 
secured  and  retained  the  friendship  not  only  of  Dryden — a 
comparatively  easy  matter — but  also  that  of  Pope,  a  much  more 
difficult  task.  Known  as  "the  poets'  Nestor",  Southerne  spent 
his  declining  years  in  peaceful  retirement  and  in  the  enjoy- 
ment of  the  fortune  which  he  had  amassed  by  his  pen. 

Nahum  Tate  (1652-1715),  a  Dubliner  by  birth,  and  Nicho- 
las Brady  (1659-1726),  a  Bandon  man,  have  secured  a  certain 
sort  of  twin  immortality  by  their  authorized  metrical  version 
of  the  Psalms  (1696),  which  gradually  took  the  place  of  the 
older  rendering  by  Sternhold  and  Hopkins.  Tate  became  poet- 


IRISH  WRITERS  OF  KNGUSH 


335 


laureate  in  1690  in  succession  to  Shadwell  and  was  ap- 
pointed historiographer-royal  in  1702.  He  wrote  the  bulk  of 
the  second  part  of  Absalom  and  Achitophel  with  a  wonderfully 
close  imitation  of  Dryden's  manner,  besides  several  dramatic 
pieces  and  poems.  Between  Tate,  Shadwell,  Eusden,  and 
Pye  lies  the  unenviable  distinction  of  being  the  worst  of  the 
laureates  of  England.  Brady  was  a  clergyman  who,  after 
the  pleasant  fashion  of  that  day,  was  a  pluralist  on  a  small 
scale,  for  he  had  the  living  of  Richmond  for  thirty  years  from 
1696,  and  while  holding  that  held  also  in  succession  the  liv- 
ings of  Stratford-on-Avon  and  Clapham.  He  added  further 
to  his  income,  and  doubtless  to  his  anxieties,  by  keeping  a 
school  at  Richmond.  He  wrote  a  tragedy  entitled  The  Rape, 
a  History  of  the  Goths  and  Vandals,  a  translation  of  the  Aeneid 
into  blank  verse,  and  an  Ode  for  St.  Cecilia's  Day;  but,  unless 
for  his  share  in  the  version  of  the  Psalms,  his  literary  reputa- 
tion is  well  nigh  as  dead  as  the  dodo. 

Ireland  somewhat  doubtfully  claims  to  have  given  birth  to 
Mrs.  Susannah  Centlivre  (c.  1667-1723),  who,  after  a  rather 
wild  youth,  settled  down  to  literary  pursuits  and  domestic 
contentment  when,  in  1706,  she  married  Queen  Anne's  head- 
cook,  Joseph  Centlivre,  with  whom  she  lived  happily  ever  after. 
Her  first  play.  The  Provoked  Husband,  a  tragedy,  was  pro- 
duced in  1700,  and  then  she  went  on  the  stage  as  an  actress. 
She  wrote  in  all  nineteen  dramatic  pieces,  some  of  which  had 
the  honor  of  being  translated  into  French  and  German.  Her 
most  original  play  was  A  Bold  Stroke  for  a  Wife  (1717). 

in.   Eighteenth  Century. 

We  have  now  fairly  crossed  the  border  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  and,  as  we  met  Ussher  early  in  the  seventeenth,  so 
we  are  here  confronted  with  the  colossal  intellect  and  impres- 
sive personality  of  Swift,  one  of  the  greatest,  most  peculiar, 
and  most  original  geniuses  to  be  found  in  the  whole  domain  of 
English  literature.  Jonathan  Swift  (1667-1745),  born  in 
Dublin,  was  educated  at  Trinity  College,  where  he  succeeded 
in  graduating  only  by  special  favor.  After  some  years 
spent  in  the  household  of  Sir  William  Temple  in  England, 
he  entered  the  ministry  of  the  Irish  Church,    During  the 


336 


the:  GLrORIES  OF  IRELAND 


early  years  of  the  century  he  spent  much  time  in  London, 
and  took  an  active  part  in  bringing  about  that  political  revolu- 
tion which  seated  the  Tories  firmly  in  power  during  the  last 
four  years  of  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne.  His  services  in  that 
connection  on  the  Examiner  newspaper  were  so  great  that  it 
would  be  difficult  to  dispute  the  assertion,  which  has  been 
made,  that  he  was  one  of  the  mightiest  journalists  that  ever 
wielded  a  pen.  He  also  stood  loyally  by  his  party  in  his  great 
pamphlets,  The  Conduct  of  the  Allies  (1711),  The  Barrier 
Treaty  (1712),  and  The  Public  Spirit  of  the  Whigs  (1714). 
When  the  time  came  for  his  reward,  he  received  not,  as  he 
had  hoped,  an  English  bishopric,  but  the  deanery  of  St.  Pat- 
rick's in  Dublin.  On  resuming  his  residence  in  Ireland  he 
was  at  first  very  unpopular,  but  his  patriotic  spirit  as  shown 
in  the  Drapier  Letters  (1723-1724),  written  in  connection  with 
a  coinage  scheme  known  as  "Wood's  halfpence",  not  only 
caused  the  withdrawal  of  the  obnoxious  project  but  also  made 
Swift  the  idol  of  all  classes  of  his  countrymen.  In  many 
others  of  his  writings  he  showed  that  pro-Irish  leaning  which 
caused  Grattan  to  invoke  his  spirit  along  with  that  of  Molyneux 
on  the  occasion  already  referred  to.  Nothing  more  mordant 
than  the  irony  contained  in  his  Modest  Proposal  has  ever  been 
penned.  In  his  plea  for  native  manufactures  he  struck  a  key- 
note that  has  vibrated  down  the  ages  when  he  advised  Irish- 
men to  burn  everything  English  except  coal! 

Swift's  greater  works  are  The  Battle  of  the  Books,  his  con- 
tribution to  the  controversy  concerning  the  relative  merits  of 
the  ancients  and  the  moderns ;  the  Tale  of  a  Tub,  in  which  he 
attacked  the  three  leading  forms  of  Christianity ;  and,  above  all, 
Gulliver's  Travels.  In  this  last  work  he  let  loose  the  full  flood 
of  his  merciless  satire  and  lashed  the  folly  and  vices  of  man- 
kind in  the  most  unsparing  way.  He  also  wrote  verses  which 
are  highly  characteristic  and  some  of  them  not  without  consid- 
erable merit.  His  life  was  unhappy  and  for  the  last  five  years  of 
it  he  was  to  all  intents  and  purposes  insane.  His  relations  with 
Stella  (Hester  Johnson)  and  Vanessa  (Esther  Vanhomrigh) 
have  never  been  quite  satisfactorily  explained.  The  weight  of 
evidence  would  seem  to  show  that  he  was  secretly  married  to 
Stella,  but  that  they  never  lived  together  a$  husband  and  wife. 


IRISH  WRlTfiHS  OF  ^NGUSH 


337 


Many  novels  and  plays  have  been  written  round  those  en- 
tanglements. He  lies  buried  in  his  own  cathedral,  St.  Patrick's, 
Dublin,  and  beside  him  lies  Stella.  Over  his  tomb  there  is  an 
epitaph  in  Latin,  written  by  himself,  in  which,  after  speaking 
of  the  saeva  indignatio  which  tore  his  heart,  he  bids  the  way- 
farer go  and  imitate,  if  he  can,  the  energetic  defender  of  his 
native  land. 

Contemporary  with  the  Dean  there  was  another  Anglo-Irish- 
man, who  fills  a  large  space  in  the  history  of  English  literature, 
and  of  whom  his  countrymen  are  justly  proud.  Sir  Richard 
Steele  (1672-1729),  who  was  born  in  Dublin  and  educated  at 
the  Charterhouse  in  London  and  afterwards  at  Oxford,  started 
the  Tatler  in  1709,  and  thereby  popularized,  though  he  did 
not  exactly  originate,  the  periodical  essay.  Aided  by  his  friend, 
Addison,  he  carried  the  work  to  perfection  in  the  Spectator 
(1711-1712)  and  the  Guardian  (1713).  Since  then  these  es- 
says have  enlightened  and  amused  each  succeeding  genera- 
tion. Of  the  two,  Addison's  is  the  greater  name,  but  Steele 
was  the  more  innovating  spirit,  for  it  is  to  him,  and  not  to 
Addison,  that  the  conception  and  initiation  of  the  plan  of  the 
celebrated  papers  is  due.  Steele  had  had  a  predecessor  in  Defoe, 
whose  Review  had  been  in  existence  since  1704,  but  the  more 
airy  graces  which  characterized  the  Tatler  and  the  Spectator 
gave  the  "lucubrations"  of  *'Isaac  Bickerstaffe"  and  of  "Mr. 
Spectator"  a  greater  hold  on  the  public  than  Defoe's  paper 
was  ever  able  to  establish.  Steele  was  responsible  for  many 
more  periodicals,  such  as  the  Englishman,  the  Lover,  the 
Reader,  Town  Talk,  the  Tea-Table,  Chit-Chat,  the  Plebeian, 
and  the  Theatre,  most  of  which  had  a  rather  ephemeral  ex- 
istence. Among  his  other  services  to  literature  he  helped  to 
purify  the  stage  of  some  of  its  grossness,  and  he  became  the 
founder  of  that  sentimental  comedy  which  in  the  days  of  the 
early  Georges  took  the  place  of  the  immoral  comedy  of  the 
Restoration  period,  when,  in  Johnson's  famous  phrase, 

Intrigue  was  plot,  obscenity  was  wit. 

Steele's  four  comedies  are  The  Funeral;  or  Grief  d  la  mode 
(1701);  The  Lying  Lover  (1703);  The  Tender  Husband 
(1705)  ;  and  The  Conscious  Lovers  (1722).    Although  he 


338 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


held  various  lucrative  offices,  Steele  was  never  really  pros- 
perous and  was  frequently  in  debt;  like  most  of  the  con- 
temporary Englishmen  with  whom  his  lot  was  thrown,  he  was 
rather  addicted  to  the  bottle;  but,  on  the  whole,  it  may  fairly 
be  advanced  that  unnecessary  stress  has  been  laid  on  these  as- 
pects of  his  life  by  Macaulay,  Thackeray,  and  others.  After 
a  chequered  career,  he  died  near  Carmarthen,  in  Wales,  on  Sep- 
tember 1,  1729. 

Member  of  a  family  and  bearer  of  a  name  destined  to 
secure  immense  fame  in  later  Irish  history,  Thomas  Parnell 
(1679-1718)  was  born  in  Dublin  and  educated  at  Trinity  Col- 
lege. Entering  the  ministry  in  1700,  he  was  rapidly  promoted 
to  be  archdeacon  of  Clogher  and  some  years  later  was  made 
rector  of  Finglas.  An  accomplished  scholar  and  a  delightful 
companion,  he  was  one  of  the  original  members  of  the  famous 
Scriblerus  Club  and  wrote  or  helped  to  write  several  of  its 
papers,  he  contributed  to  the  Spectator  and  the  Guardian,  and 
he  rendered  sterling  assistance  to  Pope  in  the  translation  of 
Homer.  As  will  be  inferred,  he  spent  much  of  his  time  in 
England,  and  on  one  of  his  journeys  to  Ireland  he  died  in 
his  thirty-ninth  year  at  Chester,  where  he  was  buried.  He 
wrote  a  great  deal  of  verse — songs,  hymns,  epistles,  eclogues, 
translations,  tales,  and  occasional  trifles ;  but  three  poems, 
A  Hymn  to  Contentment,  which  is  fanciful  and  melodious, 
A  Night-piece  on  Death,  in  which  inquisitorial  research  seems 
to  have  found  the  first  faint  dawn  of  Romanticism,  and  The 
Hermit,  which  has  been  not  inaptly  styled  "the  apex  and  chef 
d'oeuvre  of  Augustan  poetry  in  England",  constitute  his  chief 
claim  to  present  remembrance. 

Francis  Hutcheson  (1694-1746),  the  son  of  a  Presbyterian 
minister,  was  born  at  Armagh,  and  studied  at  Glasgow  Uni- 
versity. He  opened  in  Dublin  a  private  academy,  which  suc- 
ceeded beyond  expectation.  The  publication  of  his  Inquiry 
into  the  Original  of  our  Ideas  of  Beauty  and  Virtue  (1720)  and 
his  Essay  on  the  Nature  and  Conduct  of  the  Passions  (1728) 
brought  him  great  fame,  and  in  1729  he  was  elected  to  the  pro- 
fessorship of  moral  philosophy  in  the  University  of  Glasgow. 
Others  of  his  works  are  a  treatise  on  Logic  and  A  System 
of  Moral  Philosophy,  the  latter  not  published  till  1755,  nine 


IRISH  WRITERS  OF  ENGUSH 


339 


years  after  his  death.  Hutcheson  fills  a  large  space  in  the 
history  of  philosophy,  both  as  a  metaphysician  and  as  a  moral- 
ist. He  is  in  some  respects  a  pioneer  of  the  "Scotch  school" 
and  of  "common  sense"  philosophy.  He  greatly  developed  the 
doctrine  of  "moral  sense",  a  term  first  used  by  the  third  Earl 
of  Shaftesbury ;  indeed,  much  of  his  whole  moral  system  may 
be  traced  to  Shaftesbury.  Hutcheson's  influence  was  widely 
felt:  it  is  plainly  perceptible  in  Hume,  Adam  Smith,  and 
Reid.  He  was  greater  as  a  speaker  even  than  as  a  writer,  and 
his  lectures  evoked  much  enthusiasm. 

George  Berkeley  (1685-1753),  bishop  of  Cloyne,  was  born 
at  Dysert  Castle,  near  Thomastown,  Co.  Kilkenny,  and  was 
educated  first  at  Kilkenny  school  and  afterwards  at  Trinity 
College,  Dublin.  Having  taken  Anglican  orders,  he  visited 
London,  where  he  wrote  nine  papers  for  the  Guardian  and  was 
admitted  to  the  companionship  and  friendship  of  the  leading 
literary  men  of  the  age — Swift,  Pope,  Addison,  Steele, 
and  Arbuthnot.  This  connection  proved  of  great  assistance  to 
him,  for  Pope  not  only  celebrated  him  as  possessing  "every 
virtue  under  heaven",  but  also  recommended  him  to  the  Duke 
of  Grafton,  Lord-Lieutenant  of  Ireland,  who  appointed  him 
his  chaplain  and  subsequently  obtained  for  him  the  deanery  of 
Derry.  In  furtherance  of  a  great  scheme  for  "converting  the 
savage  Americans  to  Christianity",  Berkeley  and  some  friends, 
armed  with  a  royal  charter,  came  to  this  country,  landing  at 
Newport  in  Rhode  Island  in  January,  1729.  All  went  well  for 
a  while :  Berkeley  bought  a  farm  and  built  a  house ;  but  when 
the  hard-hearted  prime  minister  refused  to  forward  the  £20,000 
which  had  been  promised,  the  project  came  to  an  end, 
and  Berkeley  returned  to  London  in  February,  1732.  In  1734 
he  was  appointed  bishop  of  Cloyne,  and  later  refused  the  see 
of  Clogher,  though  its  income  was  fully  double  that  of  his 
own  diocese.  In  1752  he  resigned  his  bishopric  and  settled 
at  Oxford,  where  he  died  in  1753. 

Berkeley's  works  are  very  numerous.  His  Essay  towards  a 
Neiv  Theory  of  Vision  (1709),  which  was  long  regarded  in 
the  light  of  a  philosophical  romance,  in  reality  contains  specu- 
lations which  have  been  incorporated  in  modern  scientific 
optics.  In  his  Three  Dialogues  betzveen  Hylas  and  Philonous 
(23) 


340 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


(lil3)  he  sets  forth  his  famous  demonstration  of  the  im- 
materiaHty  of  the  external  world,  of  the  spiritual  nature  of  the 
soul,  and  of  the  all-ruling  and  direct  providence  of  God.  His 
tenets  on  immateriality  have  always  been  rejected  by  "com- 
mon-sense" philosophers ;  but  it  should  be  remembered  that  the 
whole  work  was  written  at  a  time  when  the  English- 
speaking  world  was  disturbed  by  the  theories  of  sceptics  and 
deists,  whose  doctrines  the  pious  divine  sought  as  best  he  could 
to  confute.  In  1732  appeared  his  Alciphron,  or  the  Minute 
Philosopher,  in  which,  dialogue- wise,  he  presents  nature  from 
a  religious  point  of  view  and  in  particular  gives  many  pleas- 
ing pictures  of  American  scenery  and  life.  These  dialogues 
have  frequently  been  compared  to  the  dialogues  of  Plato.  To 
Berkeley's  credit  be  it  said  that  while  he  ruled  in  Cloyne  he 
devoted  much  thought  to  the  amelioration  of  conditions  in  his 
native  land.  Many  acute  suggestions  in  that  direction  are 
found  in  the  Querist  (1735-1737).  By  some  extraordinary 
ratiocinative  process  he  convinced  himself  that  tar-water  was  a 
panacea  for  human  ills,  and  in  1744  he  set  forth  his  views  on 
that  subject  in  the  tract  called  Siris,  and  returned  to  the  charge 
in  1752  in  his  Further  Thoughts  on  Tar-Water.  Whatever 
may  be  thought  of  the  value  of  Berkeley's  philosophical  or 
practical  speculations,  there  is  only  one  opinion  of  his  style. 
It  is  distinguished  by  lucidity,  ease,  and  charm ;  it  has  the  sav- 
ing grace  of  humor ;  and  it  is  shot  through  with  imagination. 
Taken  all  in  all,  this  eighteenth  century  bishop  is  a  notable 
figure  in  literary  annals. 

Charles  Macklin  (c.  1697-1797),  whose  real  name  was  Mac- 
Laughlin,  was  a  Westmeath  man,  who  took  to  the  stage  in 
early  life  and  remained  on  the  boards  with  considerable  and 
undiminished  reputation  for  some  seventy  years,  not  retiring 
until  1789  when  he  was  at  least  92  years  old.  To  him  we  arc 
indebted  for  what  is  now  the  accepted  presentation  of  the 
character  of  Shylock  in  The  Merchant  of  Venice.  He  wrote 
a  tragedy  and  many  comedies  and  farces :  those  by  which  he  is 
now  best  remembered  are  the  farce,  Love-a-la-Mode  (1760), 
and  his  masterpiece,  the  farcical  comedy.  The  Man  of  the 
World  (1764).    In  Sir  Pertinax  MacSycophant,  Macklin  has 


IRISH  WRITERS  OF  ENGLISH 


341 


given  us  one  of  the  traditional  burlesque  characters  of  the 
English  stage. 

Thomas  Amory  (1G91? — 1788),  if  not  born  in  Ireland,  was 
at  least  of  Irish  descent  and  was  educated  in  Dublin.  He  is 
know4i  in  literature  for  two  books.  The  first,  with  the  very 
mixed  title  of  Memoirs  containing  the  Lives  of  several  Ladies 
of  Great  Britain;  A  History  of  Antiquities;  Observations  on 
the  Christian  Religion,  was  published  in  1755,  and  the  second, 
The  Life  of  John  Buncle,  Esq.,  came  out  in  two  volumes  in 
1756-1766.  It  appears  to  have  been  the  author's  aim  in  both 
works  to  give  us  a  hotch-potch  in  which  he  discourses  de  omni- 
bus rebus  et  quibusdam  aliis.  We  have  dissertations  on  the 
cause  of  earthquakes  and  of  muscular  motion,  on  the  Athana- 
sian  Creed,  on  fluxions,  on  phlogiston,  on  the  physical  cause 
of  the  Deluge,  on  Irish  literature,  on  the  origin  of  language, 
on  the  evidences  for  Christianity,  and  on  all  other  sorts  of 
unrelated  topics.  Hazlitt  thought  that  the  soul  of  Rabelais 
had  passed  into  Amory,  while  a  more  recent  critic  can  see  in 
his  long-winded  discussions  naught  but  the  "light-headed  ramb- 
lings  of  delirium."  If  we  try  to  read  John  Buncle  consecu- 
tively, the  result  is  boredom ;  but  if  we  open  the  book  at  ran- 
dom, we  are  pretty  sure  to  be  interested  and  even  sometimes 
agreeably  entertained. 

The  bizarre  figure  of  Laurence  Sterne  (1713-1768)  next 
claims  our  attention.  The  son  of  a  captain  in  the  British 
army,  he  was  born  at  Clonmel,  Co.  Tipperary.  Of  him  almost 
more  than  of  any  of  the  writers  so  far  dealt  with,  it  may  be 
said  that  he  was  Irish  only  by  the  accident  of  birth.  His  par- 
ents were  English  on  both  sides,  and  practically  the  whole 
life  of  their  son  was  spent  out  of  Ireland.  He  was  sent  to 
school  at  Halifax,  in  Yorkshire,  and  thence  went  to  Cam- 
bridge University,  where  he  graduated  in  due  season.  Taking 
Anglican  orders  in  1738,  he  was  immediately  appointed  to  the 
benefice  of  Sutton-in-the-Forest,  near  York,  and  on  his  mar- 
riage in  1741  with  Elizabeth  Lumley  he  received  the  addi- 
tional living  of  Stillington.  He  was  also  given  sundry  pre- 
bendal  and  other  appointments  in  connection  with  the  chapter 
of  the  archdiocese  of  York.  He  spent  nearly  twenty  years 
in  the  discharge  of  his  not  very  onerous  duties  and  in  reading. 


342 


THE  GLORIES  01-  IRELAND 


painting,  shooting,  and  fiddling,  without  showing  the  least  sign 
of  any  literary  leanings.  Then  suddenly,  in  1760,  he  took  the 
world  by  storm  with  the  first  two  volumes  of  Tristram  Shandy. 
He  at  once  became  the  lion  of  the  hour,  was  feted  and  dined  to 
his  heart's  content,  and  had  his  nostrils  tickled  with  the  daily 
incense  of  praise  from  his  numerous  worshippers.  He  re- 
peated the  experiment  with  equal  success  the  following  year 
with  two  more  volumes  of  Tristram,  and  so  at  intervals  until 
1767,  when  he  published  the  ninth  and  last  volume  of  this  most 
peculiar  story.  In  1768  he  brought  out  A  Sentimental  Journey, 
and  within  three  weeks  he  died  in  his  lodgings  in  London.  His 
other  publications  include  Sermons  and  Letters.  Tristram 
SJiandy  is  unique  in  English  literature — it  stands  sui  generis 
for  all  time.  There  is  scarcely  any  consecutive  narrative,  and 
what  there  is  is  used  merely  as  a  peg  on  which  to  hang  endless 
digressions.  But  while  there  are  many  faults  of  taste  and 
morals,  there  are  also  genuine  humor  and  pathos,  and  without 
Walter  Shandy,  Dr.  Slop,  the  Widow  Wadman,  Yorick,  Uncle 
Toby,  and  Corporal  Trim,  English  literature  would  certainly 
be  very  much  the  poorer. 

Hugh  Kelly  (1739-1777),  born  in  Dublin,  was  the  son  of  a 
publican  and  himself  became  a  staymaker,  a  trade  from  which 
he  developed  through  the  successive  stages  of  attorney's  clerk, 
newspaper-writer,  theatrical  critic,  and  essayist,  into  a  novelist 
and  playwright.  His  novel,  Memoirs  of  a  Magdalen  (1767), 
was  translated  into  French.  His  first  comedy,  a  sentimental 
one  entitled  False  Delicacy  (1768),  achieved  a  remarkable 
success  on  the  stage  and  was  even  a  greater  success  in  book 
form,  10,000  copies  being  sold  in  a  year,  so  that  its  author 
was  raised  from  poverty  to  comparative  affluence.  In  addition, 
it  gave  him  a  European  reputation,  for  it  was  translated  into 
German,  French,  and  Portuguese.  Strange  to  say,  his  later 
comedies,  A  Word  to  the  Wise,  A  School  for  Wives,  and  The 
Man  of  Reason,  were  practically  failures,  and  the  same  is 
true  of  his  tragedy,  Clementina.  Kelly  ultimately  withdrew 
from  stage  work,  and  for  the  last  three  years  of  his  life  prac- 
tised as  a  barrister  without,  howev^,  achieving  much  dis- 
tinction in  his  new  profession. 


IRISH  WRITERS  OF  ENGLISH 


343 


Charles  Coffey  (d.  1745),  an  Irishman,  was  the  author  of 
several  farces,  operas,  ballad  operas,  ballad  farces,  and  farcical 
operas,  the  best  known  of  which  was  The  Devil  to  Pay,  or  the 
Wives  Metamorphosed  (1731). 

Henry  Brooke  (1703? — 1783),  a  county  Cavan  man  and  the 
son  of  a  clergyman,  was  educated  at  Trinity  College,  Dublin, 
and  afterwards  studied  law  in  London.  Becoming  guardian 
to  his  cousin,  a  girl  of  twelve,  he  put  her  to  school  for  two 
years  and  then  secretly  married  her.  Of  his  large  family 
of  twenty-two  children,  three  of  whom  were  born  before  their 
mother  was  eighteen  years  old,  but  one  survived  him.  Ap- 
pointed by  Lord  Chesterfield  barrack-master  at  MuUingar, 
Brooke  afterwards  settled  in  Co.  Kildare.  It  was  there  that 
he  wrote  his  celebrated  work,  The  Fool  of  Quality,  or  the  His- 
tory of  the  Earl  of  Moreland  (5  vols.,  1766-1770),  which  won 
the  commendations  of  men  so  widely  different  as  John  Wesley 
and  Charles  Kingsley.  It  is,  indeed,  a  remarkable  book,  com- 
bining, as  it  does,  many  of  the  characteristics  of  Sterne, 
Mackenzie,  Borrow,  and  George  Meredith.  It  is  not  very  well 
known  nowadays,  but  it  will  always  bear,  and  will  well  repay, 
perusal.  Brooke  also  wrote  a  poem  on  Universal  Beauty 
(1735)  and  the  tragedies  Gustavus  Vasa  (1739),  the  produc- 
tion of  which  was  forbidden  in  London  but  which  was  after- 
wards staged  in  Dublin  as  The  Patriot,  and  The  Earl  of  Essex 
(1749),  which  was  played  both  in  London  and  in  Dublin,  and 
has  been  made  famous  by  the  parody  of  one  line  in  it  by  Samuel 
Johnson.  Another  novel,  Juliet  Grenville,  or  the  History  of 
the  Human  Heart,  published  in  1774,  was  not  nearly  up  to  the 
standard  of  The  Fool  of  Quality.  Brooke  was  a  busy  literary 
man.  He  made  a  translation  of  part  of  Tasso,  drafted  plans 
for  a  History  of  Ireland,  projected  a  series  of  old  Irish  tales, 
wrote  one  fragment  in  a  style  very  like  that  subsequently 
adopted  by  Macpherson  in  his  Ossian,  and  for  a  while  was 
editor  of  the  Freeman's  Journal.  In  the  beginning,  Brooke 
was  violently  anti-Catholic ;  but,  as  time  progressed,  he  became 
more  liberal-minded,  and  advocated  the  relaxation  of  the  penal 
laws  and  a  more  humane  treatment  of  his  Catholic  fellow- 
countrymen.  Like  Swift  and  Steele,  he  fell  into  a  state  of 
mental  debility  for  some  years  before  his  death.   His  daughter, 


344 


THE  GLORIES  OE  IRELAND 


Charlotte  Brooke  (1740-1793),  deserves  mention  as  a  pioneer 
of  the  Irish  literary  revival,  for  she  devoted  herself  to  the 
saving  of  the  stores  of  Irish  literature  which  in  her  time  were 
rapidly  disappearing.  One  of  the  fruits  of  her  labors  was  The 
Reliques  of  Irish  Poetry,  published  in  1789.  She  also  wrote 
Emma,  or  the  Foundling  of  the  Wood,  a  novel,  and  Belisariiis, 
a  tragedy. 

Charles  Johnstone  (c.  1719-1800),  a  Co.  Limerick  man, 
was  educated  in  Dublin  and  called  to  the  English  bar,  but 
owing  to  deafness  was  more  successful  as  a  chamber  counsel 
than  as  a  pleader.  Emigrating  to  India  in  1782,  he  became 
joint  proprietor  of  a  newspaper  in  Calcutta,  and  there  he 
died.  He  wrote  several  satirical  romances,  such  as  Chrysal, 
or  the  Adventures  of  a  Guinea;  The  Reverie,  or  a  Flight  to 
the  Paradise  of  Fools;  and  The  History  of  Arsaces,  Prince 
of  Betlis.  Of  these  the  first  was  the  best.  Samuel  Johnson, 
who  read  it  in  manuscript,  advised  its  publication,  and  his 
opinion  was  vindicated,  for  it  proved  a  huge  success.  Sir 
Walter  Scott  afterwards  said  that  the  author  of  Chrysal  de- 
served to  rank  as  a  prose  Juvenal.  Johnstone  also  wrote  The 
Pilgrim,  or  a  Picture  of  Life  and  a  picaresque  novel.  The  His- 
tory of  John  Juniper,  Esquire,  alias  Juniper  Jack. 

Arthur  Murphy  (1727-1805),  born  at  Cloonquin,  Co.  Ros- 
common, was  educated  at  St.  Omer.  At  first  an  actor,  he 
afterwards  studied  law  and  was  called  to  the  English  bar  in 
1762.  He  made  a  translation  of  Tacitus,  and  wrote  several 
farces  and  comedies,  among  which  may  be  mentioned  The 
Apprentice;  The  Spouter;  The  Upholsterer;  The  Way  to  Keep 
Him;  and  All  in  the  Wrong.  He  also  wrote  three  tragedies, 
namely,  The  Orphan  of  China;  The  Grecian  Daughter;  and 
Arminius.  For  the  last-named,  which  was  produced  in  1798, 
and  which  had  a  strongly  political  cast,  he  received  a  pension 
of  £200  a  year.    His  plays  long  held  the  stage. 

Oliver  Goldsmith  (1728-1774),  essayist,  poet,  novelist,  play- 
wright, historian,  biographer,  and  editor,  was  a  many-sided 
genius,  who,  as  Johnson  said  in  his  epitaph,  left  scarcely  any 
kind  of  writing  untouched,  and  touched  none  that  he  did  not 
adorn.  Born,  probably,  in  Co.  Longford,  the  son  of  a  poor 
clergyman,  he  was  educated  at  various  country  schools  until. 


IRISH  WRITERS  OF  ENGUSH 


345 


in  1744,  he  secured  a  sizarship  in  Trinity  College,  Dublin. 
There  he  had  a  somewhat  stormy  career,  but  eventually  took 
his  degree  in  1749.  He  then  lounged  at  home  for  a  while  in 
his  widowed  mother's  cottage  at  Ballymahon,  until  he  was 
persuaded  to  take  orders,  but  spoiled  his  already  sufficiently 
poor  chances  of  ordination  by  appearing  before  the  bishop  of 
Elphin  in  scarlet  breeches.  After  other  adventures  in  search 
of  a  profession,  he  went  to  Edinburgh  in  1752  to  study  medi- 
cine, and  two  years  later  transferred  himself  to  Leyden  for  the 
same  purpose.  It  was  from  Leyden  that,  with  one  guinea  in 
his  pocket,  one  shirt  on  his  person,  and  a  flute  in  his  hand,  he 
started  on  his  celebrated  walking  tour  of  Europe,  during  which 
he  gained  those  impressions  which  he  was  afterwards  to  em- 
body in  some  of  his  greater  works.  In  1756  he  arrived  in 
England,  where  for  three  years  he  had  very  varied  experiences 
— as  a  strolling  player,  an  apothecary's  journe)niian,  a  prac- 
tising physician,  a  reader  for  the  press,  an  usher  in  an  academy, 
and  a  hack-writer.  In  1759  he  published  anonymously  his 
Enquiry  into  the  Present  State  of  Polite  Learning  in  Europe, 
which  was  well  received  and  helped  him  to  other  literary  work. 
The  Bee,  a  volume  of  essays  and  verses,  appeared  in  the  same 
year.  He  was  made  editor  of  the  Lady's  Magazine;  he  pub- 
lished Memoirs  of  Voltaire  (1761),  a  History  of  Mecklen- 
hurgh  (1762),  and  a  Life  of  Richard  Nash  (1762).  In  1762 
also  he  brought  out  his  Citizen  of  the  World,  a  collection  of 
essays,  which  takes  an  extremely  high  rank.  In  1764  his 
poem.  The  Traveller,  or  a  Prospect  of  Society,  made  its  ap- 
pearance ;  and  in  1766  he  gave  to  the  world  his  famous  novel. 
The  Vicar  of  Wakefield.  His  reputation  as  a  writer  was  now 
established;  he  was  received  into  Johnson's  circle  and  was  a 
member  of  the  Literary  Club ;  Reynolds  and  Burke  were  proud 
to  call  him  friend.  In  1768  he  had  his  comedy.  The  Good 
Matured  Man,  produced  at  Covent  Garden  Theatre,  where  it 
achieved  a  fair  measure  of  success  and  brought  him  in  £400. 
In  1770  he  repeated  his  triumph  as  a  poet  with  The  Deserted 
Village.  He  wrote  a  History  of  Animated  Nature,  a  History 
of  England,  and  a  History  of  Rome,  all  compilations  couched 
in  that  easy  style  of  which  he  was  master.  He  also  wrote  a 
Life  of  Parnell  and  a  Life  of  Bolinghroke.    Finally,  in  1773, 


346 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


his  great  comedy,  She  Stoops  to  Conquer,  was  staged  at 
Covent  Garden,  and  met  with  wonderful  success.  A  little  more 
than  a  year  later  Goldsmith  died  of  a  nervous  fever,  the  re- 
sult of  overwork  and  anxiety,  and  was  buried  in  the  burial 
ground  of  the  Temple  Church.  His  unfinished  poem.  Retalia- 
tion, di  series  of  epigrams  in  epitaph  form  on  some  of  his  distin- 
guished literary  and  artistic  friends,  was  issued  a  few  days 
after  his  death,  and  added  greatly  to  his  reputation  as  a 
wit  and  himiorist,  a  reputation  which  was  still  further  en- 
hanced when,  in  1776,  The  Haunch  of  Venison  made  its  ap- 
pearance. In  the  latter  year  a  monument,  with  a  medallion 
and  Johnson's  celebrated  Latin  epitaph  attached,  was  erected 
to  his  memor}'  in  Westminster  Abbey. 

Goldsmith's  reno\\Ti,  great  in  his  own  day,  has  never  since 
diminished.  His  essays,  his  novel,  and  his  poems  are  still 
read  with  avidity  and  pleasure ;  his  comedy  is  still  acted.  It  is 
his  statue  that  stands  along  with  Burke's  at  the  entrance 
gate  to  Trinit}'  College.  Dublin,  the  alma  mater  seeking  to 
commemorate  in  a  striking  manner  two  of  her  most  distin- 
guished sons  by  placing  their  effigies  thus  in  the  forefront  of 
her  possessions  and  in  full  view  of  all  the  world.  Personally, 
Goldsmith  was  a  xtry  amiable  and  good-hearted  man.  dear  to 
his  own  circle  and  dear  to  that  "Mr.  Posterity"  to  whom  he 
once  addressed  a  humorous  dedication.  He  had  his  faults,  it 
is  true,  but  they  are  hidden  amid  his  manv  perfections.  Every- 
one will  be  disposed  to  agree  with  what  Johnson  wrote  of 
him:  "Let  not  his  frailties  be  remembered;  he  was  a  very 
great  man." 

Edmund  Burke  (1729-1797),  bom  in  Dublin,  the  son  of 
a  Protestant  father  and  a  Catholic  mother  whose  name  was 
Xagle,  was  educated  first  at  a  Quaker  school  in  Ballitore,  Co. 
Kildare,  and  afterwards  at  Trinity  College,  Dublin.  He  be- 
came a  law  student  in  London,  but  he  did  not  eventually  adopt 
the  law  as  a  profession.  He  brought  out  in  1756  a  Vindication 
of  Natural  Society,  in  which  he  so  skilfully  imitated  the  sty\e 
and  the  paradoxical  reasoning  of  Bolingbroke  that  many  were 
deceived  into  the  belief  that  the  Vindication  was  a  post- 
humously published  production  of  the  viscount's  pen.  In  the 
following   year    Burke   published    in    his    own   name  A 


IRISil  WRITERS  OF  ENGLISH 


347 


Philosophical  Inquiry  into  the  Origin  of  our  Ideas  of  the 
Sublime  and  Beautiful,  which  attracted  widespread  attention, 
was  translated  into  German  and  French,  and  brought  its 
author  into  touch  with  all  the  leading  literary  men  of  London. 
He  was  instrumental  with  Dodsley  the  publisher  in  starting  the 
Annual  Register  in  1759,  and  for  close  on  thirty  years  he 
continued  to  supply  it  with  the  "Survey  of  Events."  He  en- 
tered public  life  in  1760  by  accompanying  "Single-Speech" 
Hamilton  to  Dublin  when  the  latter  was  appointed  Chief  Secre- 
tary for  Ireland.  In  1765  he  was  made  private  secretary  to  the 
prime  minister,  the  Marquis  of  Rockingham,  and,  as  member 
for  Wendover,  entered  parliament,  where  he  speedily  made  a 
name  for  himself.  During  Lord  North's  long  tenure  of  office 
(1770-1782)  Burke  was  one  of  the  minority  and  opposed  the 
splendid  force  of  his  genius  to  the  corruption,  extravagance, 
and  mal-administration  of  the  government.  To  this  period 
belong,  in  addition  to  lesser  works,  his  great  speeches  On 
American  Taxation  (1774)  and  On  Conciliation  with  America 
(1775),  as  well  as  his  spirited  Letter  to  the  Sheriffs  of  Bristol 
(1777).  He  had  been  elected  member  of  parliament  for  Bris- 
tol in  1774,  but  he  lost  his  seat  in  1780  because  he  had  ad- 
vocated the  relaxation  of  the  restrictions  on  the  trade  of  Ire- 
land with  Great  Britain  and  of  the  penal  laws  against  Catho- 
lics. In  the  second  administration  of  Rockingham  (1782)  and 
in  that  of  Portland  (1783)  he  was  paymaster  of  the  forces, 
a  position  which  he  lost  on  the  downfall  of  the  Whigs  in  the 
latter  year,  and  he  never  again  held  public  office.  His  speech 
on  the  impeachment  of  Warren  Hastings  in  1788  is  universally 
and  justly  ranked  as  a  masterpiece  of  eloquence.  When  the 
French  Revolution  broke  out,  he  opposed  it  with  might  and 
main.  His  Reflections  on  the  French  Revolution  (1790)  had 
an  enormous  circulation,  reached  an  eleventh  edition  inside 
of  a  year,  was  read  all  over  the  continent  as  well  as  in  the 
British  Isles,  and  helped  materially  not  only  to  keep  England 
steady  in  the  crisis,  but  also  to  incite  the  other  powers  to 
continue  their  resistance  to  French  aggression.  He  continued 
his  campaign  in  Thoughts  on  French  Affairs  and  Letters  on  a 
Regicide  Peace.  He  was  given  two  pensions  in  1794,  and 
would  have  been  raised  to  the  peerage  as  Lord  Beaconsfield, 


348 


the;  GI.ORIES  OF  IRELAND 


had  not  the  succession  to  the  title  been  cut  off  by  the  premature 
death  of  his  only  son.  He  himself  died  in  1797  and  was  buried 
at  Beaconsfield,  where,  as  far  back  as  1768,  he  had  purchased 
a  small  estate. 

As  an  orator  and  a  deep  political  thinker,  Burke  holds  a 
foremost  place  among  those  of  all  time  who  distinguished 
themselves  in  the  British  parliament.  His  keen  intellect,  his 
powerful  imagination,  his  sympathy  with  the  fallen,  the  dowrx- 
trodden,  and  the  oppressed,  and  his  matchless  power  of  ut- 
terance of  the  thoughts  that  were  in  him  have  made  an  im- 
pression that  can  never  be  effaced.  His  wise  and  statesman- 
like views  on  questions  affecting  the  colonies  ought  to  endear 
him  to  all  Americans,  although,  if  his  counsels  had  been  heark- 
ened to,  it  is  probable  that  the  separation  from  the  mother 
country  would  not  have  occurred  as  soon  as  it  did.  For  his 
native  land  he  used^his  best  endeavors  when  and  how  he  could, 
and  although,  as  her  defender,  he  was  faced  by  obloquy  as 
well  as  by  the  loss  of  that  parliamentary  position  which  was 
as  dear  to  him  as  the  breath  of  his  nostrils,  he  did  not  flinch 
or  shrink  from  supporting  her  material  and  spiritual  interests 
in  his  own  generous,  jnanly,  whole-hearted  way.  Trinity  Col- 
lege, Dublin,  has  done^well  in  placing  his  statue  at  her  outer 
gates  as  representing  the  greatest  Irishman  of  his  generation. 

A  political  associate  of  Burke's  for  many  years  was  Richard 
Brinsley  Sheridan  (1751-1816).  Of  Co.  Cavan  descent,  Sheri- 
dan was  born  in  Dublin,  and  was  educated  partly  in  his  native 
city  and  partly  at  Harrow,  and  the  remainder  of  his  life  was 
spent  in  England.  He  was  distinguished  first  as  a  playwright 
and  afterwards  as  a  parliamentary  orator.  In  1775  his  comedy. 
The  Rivals,  was  produced  at  Covent  Garden  Theatre;  his  farce, 
St.  Patrick's  Day,  or  the  Scheming  Lieutenant,  and  his  comic 
opera.  The  Duenna,  were  staged  in  the  same  year.  His  greatest 
comedy,  The  School  for  Scandal,  was  acted  at  Drury  Lane 
Theatre  in  1777,  and  it  was  followed  in  1779  by  The  Critic. 
His  last 'dramatic  composition  was  the  tragedy,  Pizarro,  pro- 
duced in  1799.  Elected  to  parliament  in  1780,  Sheridan  was 
made  'under-secretary  for  foreign  affairs  in  the  Rockingham 
administration  of  1782,  and  in  1783  he  was  secretary  to  the 
treasury  in  the  Coalition  Ministry,   He  sprang  into  repute  as 


IRISH  WRITERS  0]?  KNGUSH 


349 


a  brilliant  orator  during  the  impeachment  of  Warren  Hastings, 
1787-1794.  His  speech  on  the  Begums  of  Oude  was  one  of  the 
greatest  ever  delivered  within  the  walls  of  the  British  parlia- 
ment. In  1806,  on  the  return  of  the  Whigs  to  power,  he  was 
appointed  treasurer  in  the  navy.  In  1812  his  long  parliamentary 
career  came  to  a  close  when  he  was  defeated  for  the  borough  of 
Westminster.  He  died  in  1816,  and  was  honored  with  a  mag- 
nificent funeral  in  Westminster  Abbey. 

To  give  an  idea  as  to  how  Sheridan's  oratorical  powers  im- 
pressed his  contemporaries,  it  is  perhaps  enough  to  repeat 
what  Burke  said  of  his  second  speech  against  Warren  Hast- 
ings, namely,  that  it  was  "the  most  astonishing  effort  of  elo- 
quence, argument,  and  wit  united  of  which  there  is  any  record 
or  tradition",  and  to  add  that  when,  after  three  hours  of  im- 
passioned pleading,  he  brought  his  first  speech  against  Hastings 
to  an  end,  the  effect  produced  was  so  great  that  it  was  agreed 
to  adjourn  the  house  immediately  and  defer  the  final  decision 
until  the  members  should  be  in  a  less  excited  mood.  As  a 
dramatist  Sheridan  is  second  in  popularity  to  Shakespeare 
alone.  The  School  for  Scandal  and  The  Rivals  are  as  fresh 
and  as  eagerly  welcomed  today  as  they  were  a  hundred  and 
forty  years  ago.  Like  Burke,  he  was  true  to  the  land  of  his 
birth  and  his  oppressed  Catholic  fellow-countrymen.  Almost 
his  last  words  in  the  house  of  commons  were  these :  "Be  just 
to  Ireland.  I  will  never  give  my  vote  to  any  administration 
that  opposes  the  question  of  Catholic  emancipation." 

Sheridan  belonged  to  a  family  that  was  exceptionally  dis- 
tinguished in  English  literature.  Among  those  who  preceded 
him  as  litterateurs  were  his  grandfather,  the  Rev.  Thomas 
Sheridan,  D.D. ;  his  father,  Thomas  Sheridan;  and  his  mother, 
Frances  Sheridan.  Rev.  Dr.  Sheridan  (1684-1738),  the  friend 
and  confidant  of  Dean  Swift,  kept  a  fashionable  school  in 
Dublin,  edited  the  Satires  of  Persius  in  1728,  wrote  a  treatise 
on  The  Art  of  Punning,  and  figures  largely  in  Swift's  corre- 
spondence. Thomas  Sheridan  (1721-1788)  was  at  first  'an 
actoi^of  considerable  reputation,  both  in  Dublin  and  in  Lon- 
don ;  was  next  a  teacher  of  elocution ;  and  finally  came  forward 
with  an  improved  system  of  education,  in  which  oratory  was 
to  have  a  conspicuous  part.  In  this  connection  he  published 


350 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


an  elaborate  Plan  of  Education  in  1769,  but  his  ideas,  some 
of  which  are  in  accord  with  modern  practice,  were  not  taken 
up.  He  also  compiled  a  pronouncing  Dictionary  of  the  Eng- 
lish Language,  with  a  prosodic  grammar,  and  in  1784  pub- 
lished an  entertaining  Life  of  Sivift.  Frances  Sheridan  (1724- 
1766),  wife  of  Thomas  and  mother  of  Richard  Brinsley,  who 
as  Frances  Chamberlaine  had  been  known  as  a  poetess,  wrote 
after  her  marriage  two  plays,  The  Discovery  and  The  Dupe, 
and  two  novels,  The  Memoirs  of  Miss  Sidney  Biddulph,  which 
was  a  great  success  and  was  translated  by  the  Abbe  Prevost 
into  French,  and  The  History  of  Nourjahad,  an  Oriental  tale. 
In  1775  the  singular  spectacle  was  presented  of  the  son's  play 
running  at  Covent  Garden  while  the  mother's  was  being  acted 
at  Drury  Lane. 

Among  Sheridan's  descendants  who  earned  a  niche  in  the 
temple  of  literary  fame  were  his  grand-daughters,  the  Coun- 
tess of  Dufferin  C 1807-1867)  and  the  Hon.  Mrs.  Norton,  after- 
wards Lady  Stirling  Maxwell  (1808-1877),  and  his  great- 
grandson,  the  first  Marquis  of  Dufferin  and  Ava  (1826-1903). 
Lady  Dufferin's  Lament  of  the  Irish  Emigrant  ("I'm  sittin' 
on  the  style,  Mary")  has  moved  the  hearts  and  brought  tears 
to  the  eyes  of  countless  thousands  since  it  was  published 
more  than  fifty  years  ago. 

Sir  Philip  Francis  (1740-1818),  born  in  Dublin,  was  the 
son  of  a  clergyman  of  like  name  who  attained  some  literary 
eminence  as  the  translator  of  Horace  and  as  a  political  writer. 
After  filling  various  important  government  positions,  Philip 
Francis,  the  son,  was  in  1773  made  a  member  of  the  Council  of 
Bengal,  where  His  relations  with  the  governor-general,  War- 
ren Hastings,  were  of  an  extremely  strained  character,  amount- 
ing at  times  almost  to  a  public  scandal.  He  returned  to  Eng- 
land in  1781,  entered  parliament,  made  a  name  as  a  speaker, 
took  part  in  the  impeachment  of  Hastings,  and  composed 
numerous  political  pamphlets.  He  is  generally  supposed  to 
have  been  the  writer  of  the  celebrated  Letters  of  Junius,  which 
appeared  at  intervals  in  the  Public  Advertiser  between  Jan- 
uary 21,  1769,  and  January  21,  1772.  These  letters  are  dis- 
tinguished for  their  polished  style,  their  power  of  invective, 
their  galling  sarcasm,  their  knowledge  of  state  secrets,  and 


IRISH  WRITERS  OF  ENGLISH 


351 


their  unparalleled  boldness.  Every  prominent  man  connected 
with  the  government  was  attacked:  even  the  king  himself 
was  not  spared.  As  revised  by  their  pseudonymous  writer  in 
a  reprint  made  in  1772,  they  number  70  ;  a  later  edition,  in  1812, 
contained  113  more.  Their  authorship  has  been  the  subject 
of  much  controversy,  nor  is  the  question  yet  finally  settled.  In 
his  Essay  on  Warren  Hastings,  written  in  1841,  Macaulay  went 
to  considerable  trouble  to  prove,  by  the  cumulative  method, 
that  Francis  was  the  writer,  and  since  then  that  opinion  has 
been  generally,  but  not  universally,  maintained. 

Isaac  Bickerstaffe  (c.  1735 — c.  1812)  was  an  Irishman,  whose 
name,  strange  to  say,  had  no  connection  with  the  nom  de  guerre 
of  the  same  style  under  which  Swift  had  masqueraded  in  his 
outrageously  satirical  attacks  on  Partridge  the  almanac  maker, 
or  with  the  more  celebrated  imaginary  Isaac  Bickerstaffe 
under  cover  of  whose  personality  Steele  conducted  the  Tatler, 
The  real  Bickerstaffe  was  a  prolific  playwright.  His  best 
known  pieces  are  The  Sultan,  The  Maid  of  the  Mill,  Lionel 
and  Clarissa,  and  Love  in  a  Village,  In  the  last-mentioned 
occurs  the  famous  song,  beginning  "We  all  love  a  pretty  girl — 
under  the  rose." 

William  Drennan  (1754-1820),  who  has  been  called  the 
Tyrtaeus  of  the  United  Irishmen,  was  the  son  of  a  Presbyterian 
clergyman,  was  born  in  Belfast,  and  was  educated  at  Glasgow 
and  Edinburgh  universities,  taking  a  medical  degree  from  the 
latter.  He  practised  his  profession  in  the  north  of  Ireland. 
When  the  Irish  Volunteers  were  established,  Drennan  entered 
heart  and  soul  into  the  movement.  Removing  to  Dublin  in 
1789,  he  associated  with  Tone  and  other  revolutionary  spirits, 
and  became  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Society  of  United 
Irishmen,  the  first  statement  of  whose  objects  was  the  pro- 
duct of  his  pen.  His  Letters  of  Orellana  helped  materially  to 
enlist  the  men  of  Ulster  in  the  ranks  of  the  Society.  He  also 
wrote  a  series  of  stirring  lyrics  which,  voicing  as  they  did  the 
general  sentiment  in  Ireland  at  the  time,  became  extremely 
popular  and  had  a  widespread  effect.  These  were  afterwards 
(1815)  collected  under  the  title  of  Fugitive  Pieces.  All  his 
political  hopes  being  blasted  with  the  failure  of  the  rebellion 
«f  1798  and  of  Emmet's  insurrection  in  1803,  Drennan  re- 


352 


THE  GLORIES  0^  IRELAND 


turned  in  1807  to  Belfast  and  there  founded  the  Belfast 
Magazine.  "The  Wake  of  William  Orr",  a  series  of  noble  and 
affecting  stanzas  commemorating  the  judicial  murder  of  a 
young  Presbyterian  Irish  patriot  in  1798,  is  one  of  his  best 
known  pieces.  He  also  celebrated  the  ill-fated  brothers  Sheares. 
His  song  "Erin"  was  considered  by  Moore  to  be  one  of  the 
most  perfect  of  modern  songs.  It  was  in  this  piece  that  he 
fixed  upon  Ireland  the  title  of  the  Emerald  Isle : 

When  Erin  first  rose  from  the  dark  swelling  flood, 
God  bless'd  the  green  island,  and  saw  it  was  good; 
The  em'rald  of  Europe,  it  sparkled  and  shone — 
In  tlie  ring  of  the  world  the  most  precious  stone. 

Mary  Tighe  (1772-1810),  whose  maiden  name  was  Blach- 
ford,  was  born,  the  daughter  of  a  clergyman,  in  Co.  Wicklow. 
She  contracted  an  unhappy  marriage  with  her  cousin  who 
represented  Kilkenny  in  the  Irish  house  of  commons.  By  all 
accounts  she  was  of  great  beauty  and  numerous  accomplish- 
ments. She  wrote  many  poems :  her  best,  and  best  known, 
is  Psyche,  or  the  Legend  of  Love,  an  adaptation  of  the  story  of 
Cupid  and  Psyche  from  the  Golden  Ass  of  Apuleius.  The 
metre  she  employed  in  this  piece  was  the  Spenserian  stanza, 
which  she  handled  with  great  power,  freedom,  and  melody. 
Psyche,  which  first  appeared  in  1795,  had  a  wonderful  vogue, 
running  rapidly  through  edition  after  edition.  Among  others 
to  whom  it  appealed  and  who  were  influenced  by  it  was  Keats. 
Mrs.  Tighe's  talent  drew  from  Moore  a  delicate  compliment  in 
"Tell  me  the  witching  tale  again";  and  in  "The  Grave  of  a 
Poetess"  and  "I  stood  where  the  life  of  song  lay  low",  Mrs. 
Hemans  bewailed  her  untimely  death. 

Edmund  Malone  (1741-1812),  the  son  of  an  Irish  judge, 
was  born  in  Dublin  and  studied  at  Trinity  College.  He  was 
called  to  the  Irish  bar  in  1767,  but  coming  into  a  fortune,  he 
abandoned  his  profession  and  gave  himself  over  to  literar>' 
work.  In  1790  he  brought  out  an  edition  of  Shakespeare  which 
was  deservedly  praised  for  its  learning  and  research.  His 
critical  acumen  led  him  to  doubt  the  genuineness  of  Chatter- 
ton's  Rowley  Poems,  and  he  was  one  of  the  first  to  expose 
Ireland's  Shakespearean  forgeries  in  1796.   Among  other  ser- 


IRISH  WRITERS  OF  ENGLISH 


35:3 


vices  to  literature  he  wrote  a  Life  of  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  and 
edited  Dryden.  He  also  left  a  quantity  of  materials  after- 
wards utilized  for  the  "Variorum  Shakespeare"  by  James 
Boswell  the  younger  in  1821. 

John  O'Keeffe  (1747-1833),  a  Dublin  man,  was  at  first  an 
art  student,  but  soon  became  an  actor,  and  then  developed  into 
a  playwright.  His  pen  was  most  prolific;  he  published  a  col- 
lection of  over  fifty  pieces  in  1798.  His  plays  are  mostly  comic 
operas  or  farces,  and  some  of  them  had  great  success.  Lingo, 
the  schoolmaster  in  The  Agreeable  Surprise,  is  a  very  amusing 
character.  The  Positive  Man,  The  Son-in-Law,  Wild  Oats, 
Love  in  a  Camp,  and  The  Poor  Soldier  are  among  his  com- 
positions. His  songs  are  well  known,  such  as  "I  am  a  friar 
of  orders  grey",  and  there  are  few  schoolboys  who  have  not 
sooner  or  later  made  the  acquaintance  of  his  "Amo,  amas,  I 
loved  a  lass".  For  the  last  fifty-two  years  of  his  life  0'Keefi:e 
was  blind,  an  affliction  which  he  bore  with  unfailing  cheerful- 
ness. In  1826  he  was  given  a  pension  of  one  hundred  guineas 
a  year  from  the  king's  privy  purse. 

George  Canning  (1770-1827),  prime  minister  of  England, 
properly  belongs  here,  for,  although  born  in  London,  he  was  a 
member  of  an  Irish  family  long  settled  at  Garvagh  in  Co. 
Derry.  Entering  parliament  on  the  side  of  Pitt  in  1796,  he  was 
made  secretary  of  the  navy  in  1804  and  in  1812  secretary 
of  State  for  foreign  affairs.  He  became  prime  minister  in 
1827,  but  died  within  six  months,  leaving  a  record  for  scarcely 
surpassed  eloquence.  In  addition  to  his  speeches,  he  is  known 
in  literature  for  his  contributions  to  the  Anti-Jacobin,  or 
Weekly  Examiner,  which  ran  its  satirical  and  energetic  career 
for  eight  months  (November,  1797— July,  1798.)  Some  of 
the  best  things  that  appeared  in  this  ultra-conservative  organ 
were  from  Canning's  pen.  Few  there  are  who  have  not 
laughed  at  his  Loves  of  the  Triangles,  in  which  he  caricatured 
Erasmus  Darwin's  Loves  of  the  Plants;  at  The  Needy  Knife- 
Grinder;  or  at  the  song  of  Rogero  in  The  Rovers,  with  its 
comic  refrain  of  the 


U- 

niversity  of  Gottingen. 


354 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IREI^AXD 


Like  most  of  the  great  Anglo-Irishmen  of  his  time,  Canning 
favored  Catholic  emancipation.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that 
it  was  a  letter  of  Canning's  that  led  to  the  formulation  of  the 
Monroe  Doctrine. 

Henry  Grattan  (1746-1820),  the  hero  of  Grattan's  parHa- 
ment,  was  born  in  Dublin  and  studied  at  Trinity  College.  His 
history  belongs  to  that  of  his  country.  Suffice  it  here  to  say 
that  not  only  did  he  by  great  eloquence  and  real  statesman- 
ship secure  a  free  parliament  for  Ireland  in  1782,  but  also 
that  he  fought  energetically,  if  unavailingly,  against  the  aboli- 
tion of  that  parliament  in  1800,  and  that  thenceforward  he 
devoted  his  abilities  to  promoting  the  cause  of  Catholic  eman- 
cipation. Dying  in  London,  he  was  honored  by  being  buried  in 
Westminster  Abbey.  In  an  age  of  great  orators  he  stands 
out  among  the  very  foremost.  His  speeches  have  become 
classics,  and  are  constantly  quoted. 

Another  brilliant  Irish  orator,  as  well  as  an  eminent  wit, 
of  this  period,  was  John  Philpot  Curran  (1750-1817),  who, 
born  at  Newmarket,  Co.  Cork,  and  educated  at  Trinity  College, 
Dublin,  achieved  a  wonderful  success  at  the  Irish  bar.  He 
defended  with  rare  insight,  eloquence,  and  patriotism  those 
who  were  accused  of  complicity  in  the  rebellion  of  1798.  As 
a  member  of  Grattan's  parliament,  he  voiced  the  most  liberal 
principles,  and,  though  a  Protestant  himself,  he  worked  hard 
in  the  Catholic  cause.  He  held  the  great  office  of  Master  of 
the  Rolls  in  Ireland  from  1806  to  1814.  The  memory  of  few 
Irish  orators,  w'its,  or  patriots  is  greener  today  than  that  of 
Curran.  His  daughter  Sarah,  whose  fate  is  so  inextricably 
blended  with  that  of  the  ill-starred  Robert  Emmet,  has  been 
rendered  immortal  by  Moore  in  his  beautiful  song,  "She  is  far 
from  the  land  where  her  young  hero  sleeps". 

Mary  Wollstonecraft  Godwin  (1759-1797),  the  first  advocate 
of  the  rights  of  w^omen,  though  born  in  London,  was  of 
Irish  extraction.  Into  the  details  of  her  extraordinary  and 
chequered  career  it  is  not  possible,  or  necessary,  here  to  enter. 
Her  published  works  include  Thoughts  on  the  Education  of 
Daughters  (1787)  ;  Answer  to  Burke's  Reflections  on  the 
French  Revolution  (1791)  ;  Vindication  of  the  Rights  of 
Women  (1792)  ;  and  an  unfinished  Historical  and  Moral  View 


IRISH  WRITERS  01?  ENGLISH 


355 


of  the  French  Revolution  (Vol.  I.,  1794).  Having  in  August, 
1797,  borne  to  her  husband,  William  Godwin,  a  daughter  who 
afterwards  became  Shelley's  second  wife,  Mary  Godwin  died 
in  the  following  month.  Whatever  her  faults — and  they  were 
perhaps  not  greater  than  her  misfortunes — she  had  something 
of  the  divine  touch  of  genius,  and,  in  a  different  environment, 
might  easily  have  left  some  great  literary  memento  which  the 
world  would  not  willingly  let  die. 

Maria  Edgeworth  (1767-1849),  though  born  at  Blackbourton 
in  England,  belonged  to  a  family  which  had  been  settled  in 
different  parts  of  Ireland  and  finally  at  Edgeworthstown,  Co. 
Longford,  for  nearly  two  hundred  years.  She  was  the  daughter 
of  Richard  Lovell  Edgeworth  (1744-1817),  who  was  distin- 
guished for  his  inventions,  for  his  eccentricity,  and  for  his 
varied  matrimonial  experiences,  and  who  himself  figures  in 
literature  as  the  author  of  Memoirs,  posthumously  published 
in  1820,  and  as  the  partner  with  his  daughter  in  Practical  Ed- 
ucation (1798)  and  in  an  Essay  on  Irish  Bulls  (1802).  Maria 
had  a  busy  literary  career  and  was  before  the  public  for  fifty- 
two  years  from  1795  to  1847.  She  wrote  Moral  Tales;  Popu- 
lar Tales;  Tales  from  Fashionable  Life;  and  Harrington;  but 
she  is  now  best  remembered  for  her  three  masterpieces  dealing 
with  Irish  life  and  conditions,  namely.  Castle  Rackrent  (1800)  ; 
The  Absentee  (1812)  ;  and  Ormond  (1817).  By  these  works 
she  inspired  Scott,  as  he  himself  tells  us,  to  attempt  for  his 
own  country  something  "of  the  same  kind  with  that  which  she 
had  so  fortunately  achieved  for  Ireland",  and  in  a  later  day 
she  inspired  Turgenief  to  do  similarly  for  Russia.  She  excels 
in  wit  and  pathos  and  gives  a  true  and  vivid  presentation  of  the 
times  and  conditions  as  she  viewed  them. 

Andrew  Cherry  (1762-1821),  born  in  Limerick,  became  an 
actor,  a  theatrical  manager,  and  a  playwright.  He  wrote  nine 
or  ten  plays,  several  of  which  were  moderately  successful.  The 
one  that  is  now  remembered  is  The  Soldier's  Daughter.  Some 
of  his  songs,  such  as  "The  Bay  of  Biscay",  "Tom  Moody,  the 
Whipper-in",  and,  especially,  "The  Green  Little  Shamrock  of 
Ireland",  bid  fair  to  be  immortal. 

Other  Irish  song-writers  were  Thomas  Duffet  (fl.  1676), 
author  of  "Come  all  you  pale  lovers";  Arthur  Dawson  (1700?- 


356 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IRELAND 


1775),  author  of  "Bumpers,  Squire  Jones" ;  George  Ogle  (1742- 
1814),  author  of  "Molly  Asthore";  Richard  Alfred  Millikin 
(1767-1815),  author  of  the  grotesque  "Groves  of  Blarney"; 
Edward  Lysaght  (1763-1811),  author  of  "Our  Ireland",  "The 
Gallant  Man  who  led  the  van  Of  the  Irish  Volunteers",  and 
"Kate  of  Garnavilla";  George  Nugent  Reynolds  (1770P-1802), 
author  of  "Kathleen  O'More";  Thomas  Dermody  (1775- 
1802),  author  of  the  collection  of  poems  and  songs  known 
as  The  Harp  of  Erin;  James  Orr  (1770-1816),  author  of  "The 
Irishman";  Henry  Brereton  Code  (d.  1830),  author  of  "The 
Sprig  of  Shillelah";  Charles  Wolfe  (1791-1823),  author  of 
"If  I  had  thought  thou  couldst  have  died",  and  of  "The  Burial 
of  Sir  John  Moore";  and  Charles  Dawson  Shanly  (1811-1875), 
author  of  "Kitty  of  Coleraine". 

Theobald  Wolfe  Tone  (1763-1798),  born  in  Dublin,  edu- 
cated at  Trinity  College,  and  called  to  the  Irish  bar  in  1789, 
fills  a  large  space  in  the  history  of  his  country  from  1790  to 
his  death  in  1798.  Intrepid,  daring,  and  resourceful,  he  was 
one  of  the  most  dangerous  of  the  enemies  to  English  domina- 
tion in  Ireland  that  arose  at  any  time  during  the  troubled  rela- 
tions between  the  two  countries.  Taken  prisoner  on  board 
a  French  ship  of  the  line  bound  for  Ireland  on  a  mission  of 
freedom,  he  committed  suicide  in  prison  rather  than  submit  to 
the  ignominy  of  being  hanged  to  which  he  had  been  condemned. 
He  sleeps  his  last  sleep  in  Bodenstown  churchyard,  in  that 
county  of  Kildare  to  which  he  was  connected  by  many  tits. 
His  grave  is  still  the  Mecca  of  many  a  pilgrimage,  and  the 
corner-stone  of  a  statue  to  his  memory  has  been  laid  for  some 
years  on  a  commanding  site  in  the  city  of  his  birth.  He  is 
known  in  literature  for  his  Journals  and  his  Autobiography, 
both  containing  sad,  but  inspiring,  reading  for  the  Irishman 
of  today. 


Here  this  rapid  survey  of  Irish  writers  of  English  must  close. 
To  tell  in  any  sort  of  appropriate  detail  the  story  of  the  Eng- 
lish literature  of  Ireland  in  the  nineteenth  and  twentieth  cen- 
turies would  require  a  separate  volume — a  volume  which  is 


IRISH  WRITERS  OF  ENGUSH 


357 


now  under  way  and  will,  it  is  hoped,  be  speedily  forthcoming. 
There  is  all  the  less  need  to  attempt  the  agreeable  task  here, 
because  in  other  portions  of  this  book  much  more  than  pass- 
ing reference  is  made  to  the  chief  Irish  authors  who,  in  the 
last  hundred  and  fifteen  years,  have  distinguished  themselves 
and  shed  lustre  on  their  country.  During  that  period  Irish 
poets,  playwrights,  novelists,  essayists,  historians,  biographers, 
humorists,  critics,  and  scholars  Have  fully  held  their  own  both 
in  the  quantity  and  the  quality  of  the  work  produced,  and  have 
left  an  impression  of  power  and  personality,  of  graceful  style 
and  vivifying  imagination,  that  in  itself  constitutes,  and  must 
for  ever  constitute,  one  of  the  distinctive  Glories  of  Ireland. 

Refebences  : 

Irish  Literature  (10  vols.,  New  York,  1904)  ;  Chambers's  Cyclo- 
paedia of  English  Literature  (3  vols.,  Philadelphia  and  London,  1902- 
1904) ;  Dictionary  of  National  Biography;  Encyclopaedia  Britannica; 
Cambridge  History  of  English  Literature;  D'Alton:  History  of  Ire- 
land (London,  1910)  ;  Lennox :  Early  Printing  in  Ireland  (Wa^- 
ington,  1909),  Addison  and  the  Modern  Essay  (Washington,  1912), 
Lessons  in  English  Literature  (21st  edition,  Baltimore,  1913) ; 
Macaulay:  Essays,  History  of  England;  Brown:  A  Reader's  Guide 
to  Irish  Fiction  (London,  1910),  A  Guide  to  Books  on  Ireland  (Dub- 
lin, 1912). 


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